The Fairest of them
by MadelineSnape Esq
Summary: The team sets off to find an elusive Unsub, but what happens when he decides to make Emily Prentiss his next victim. Rated M for later chapters. H/P
1. Trapped

The Fairest of them All

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Trapped

Emily Prentiss woke to a blinding light shinning in her eyes and a throbbing ache in the back of her head. As she sat up a bit her captor came into view. He was tall—easily over six feet—a little over weight but clearly very strong. He had an unruly mop of brown hair on his head and a few days worth of stubble on his chin. Emily couldn't help but cringe involuntarily when she saw the leer on his face directed right at her.

"Good you're awake, the fun can finally begin." He said with a grin on his face that caused Emily to shiver. "You have been asleep for two days. I gave you something to help you sleep; you looked very tired like you hadn't slept in days." He said reaching to touch her face.

Emily desperately wanted to pull away but she had no idea what this man's current mental state was. If she pulled away he could very easily flip out and attack her. It was quickly becoming clear to her that this was the Unsub the team from the BAU had been hunting all week long. He had kidnapped five women dressed them up as characters out of fairy tales and after a few days of torturing them he killed them. She knew that if she ever wanted to make it out of his lair she was going to have to be very careful.

All Emily wanted to do was attack this man and escape but after two days of being sedated she was weak and she was more than certain that this psychotic man could easily stop any attack she could bring at this moment.

And then a realization hit her like a ton of bricks: if she had been sedated in this room for two day that meant that her team—her friends were probably going out of their minds searching for her. They had very little to go on to find this man even after five murders and she doubted he left any more evidence when he attacked and kidnapped her. Emily felt a wave of guilt for what her team was going through looking for her with so few leads. She felt especially bad for causing Hotch to worry about her after everything that had already happened to him this past year.

The guilt was quickly replaced with a fear that pressed down on her chest forcing the air out of her lungs. With so few leads and with no more evidence likely to be provided there was very little chance that they would find her in time. No one knew where she was or how to find her and the clock was ticking. Emily began to realize it was likely she would end up as this man's sixth victim. She was pulled out of her thoughts as he began to speak to her.

"You will be my masterpiece. All the others were just practice for the wonderful things I will do to you."

This only caused the weight on Emily's chest to press harder preventing her from breathing further. She had seen what this man had done to the five women who preceded her and she wondered what could surpass the hells he had already committed.

"Snow White has always been my favorite." He continued "and I knew the moment I saw you three days ago at the crime scene that you were the one. Skin as white as snow," he said as he proceeded to caress her cheek again. "Lips as red as blood" he said mimicking the action this time to her lips and while every bone in her body wanted to rebel and pull away Emily let him continue.

"Hair as black as the ebony window pain," he said as he violently pulled her hair forcing her face closer to his. "I even thought up something extra special for your friends." He forced her head to look at the camera he had placed in the right hand corner of the room.

"It will give them hope of rescuing you all the while they will watch helplessly as I kill you. They will never find you that camera is untraceable." He forced her to look at him once more. "You will never escape here not even after I kill you. I plan to keep you forever in a glass coffin. You will forever be my Snow White. Sit tight sweetheart, I will be back soon and then the fun will being." He threw her back on to the bed, slamming the heavy steel door shut as he left. Emily could hear the locks turn and fasten once the door was closed.

Emily forced herself to breath, taking a shaky breath she sat up and looked around. The only way of escape was through the steel door, there were no windows, and she couldn't even tell if it was night or day. The only source of light was the bright florescent bulbs on the ceiling above. She was trapped in a concert box with no hope of escape. Fighting her captor was an option she had already dismissed, she hadn't eaten in days and she had seen the revolver at his hip not to mention her gun which he took from her hiding somewhere.

He had changed her clothes, that thought alone disgusted her, the idea of his hands over her bare skin made her cringe. She desperately hoped that their initial profile has been correct and the man would keep his hands to himself, at least sexually, fore she knew when he came back in the room he was going to hurt her.

He had dressed her in a long blue corseted dress with a low neckline making her look a bit like Anne Boleyn from that Showtime show she caught a few times. Emily suddenly wanted out of these clothes very badly, they were suffocating her, but she knew removing them would anger her captor. Not to mention she had no other clothes to wear, that meant she would have to put up with them for the time being. Frustrated she knew she couldn't do much about her current problems at the moment. All she could do was hope and pray that this guy messed up soon or maybe Garcia would be able to somehow trace the untraceable video feed from the camera.

Oh that damn camera, if it couldn't help them find her the last thing she wanted was for her friends to see the horrible things this man was coon going to be doing to her. Up to this point she had avoided looking at the camera but as she looked up at she saw a red light flash on indicating that the camera was now recording. She wanted to cry but instead she turned away from the camera back to the door mentally preparing herself for what was about to come.

She knew that without a slip up by the Unsub it would be unlikely her team would find her in time, if they found her at all. If this serial killer had his way she would be his glass encased trophy forever. And as much as she did not want to admit it she, Emily Prentiss, was scared.


	2. Once Upon A Time

Once Upon a Time

Five Days ago

The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit lead by Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner had been called out to the suburbs of New Haven Connecticut. An Unsub had kidnapped and killed four women over the course of a month, leaving very few clues to his identity.

"Let's go over the case files one more time there is very little evidence we can't afford to miss anything," requested Hotch from his seat next to Emily Prentiss.

Derek Morgan began first from his seat opposite Hotch. "Okay the first victim was Angela Banks age 35, on April 21 she was kidnapped from her local video store when she went to return a movie around 11pm. Her car was found in the video store parking lot abandoned. She was found in an empty warehouse on the edge of town; there she was found dressed as a princess in a pink medieval looking dress on a bed with ornate expensive sheets. These were not the clothes she was abducted in needless to say. She was found by the new owner of the warehouse.

"The police found an old fashion spinning wheel in the room and a copy of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, on the floor. Angela Banks has been missing for only a day before she was found. COD was poison; apparently she was injected with it. The corner found several bruises and a broken wrist and several broken ribs from being beaten and tortured before she was poisoned."

"The second victim was Victoria Williams age 32. She was abducted on April 27th from a gas station near her house around 12:30 in the morning; her car was found abandoned there as well. She was found on the 29th drowned in the bathtub in a hotel room also on the edge of town. The maid found her when she went to clean the room that morning. According to the officers at the scene she was dressed as a mermaid fin and all, she was a redhead and the Unsub dressed her to look exactly like Disney's Little Mermaid, copy of the fairy tale left at the scene also the Disney version.

"It is unclear what importance that has as the first book was a generic version. She was held for two days before she was killed, she had bruises, a broken nose, a broken wrist and several broken ribs all inflicted prior to her death." The BAU's resident genius Spencer Reid ran down the facts on victim number two as he sat next to Morgan by the window.

"The third victim Marlee Neelson, 29, was discovered with her head cut off in a recently finished office building. She was discovered by the contractor who was doing a final check of the building. She was blond and found dressed as Alice in Wonderland, which was the book left at the scene. She had bruises, a broken wrist, broken ribs, and both shoulders were dislocated. The corner also found sedatives in her system—which were not present in the previous two victims and it looks as though she hadn't eaten in three days that was exactly how long the Unsub kept her. She was abducted on May 4th from her local shopping center when she went to pick up Chinese take out around 11:30. She was found dead three days later. "David Rossi chimed in with details on the third victim; he sat across the aisle from Hotch.

"And the last victim was Janice Milborn, age 38, she was abducted on May 9th when she left her 24 hour gym around 10:30. She was held for four days before she was found burned alive in the kitchen of a house that was being renovated. Firemen where called when neighbors noticed the fire but Janice was dead before they could put the fire out. She was found with melted glass on her feet the police think the glass may have come from some kind of makeshift glass shoes.

"A copy of Cinderella--the Brothers Grimm version was found as the scene. The coroner believes that she had several broken bones including a broken wrist, several broken ribs and it appears her toes where cut off prior to her death. Cleaning products where used as accelerants, the victim was covered in them." Emily Prentiss said completing the tale of these horrific murders.

"He pays for everything in cash and the only description the New Haven police have is a tall slightly overweight man with messy brown hair. There were no surveillance cameras at any of the locations except for the gym and gas station but the abduction was not within the cameras coverage area. On top of that there is not one single witness from any of the abductions " Hotch said unhappily, they had almost nothing to help find this serial killer and that frustrated him greatly.

"How do you abduct someone from a public location and manage to get away unseen?" Morgan asked.

"Hopefully there is someone out there who saw something and they just don't know it." Rossi offered optimistically.

"Lets hope you're right so far the police have found nothing and the public hasn't been able to provide any information." Hotch added.

"The media has started calling him the Fairy Tale Killer." Jennifer Jareau sighed from her seat across from Rossi.

"Not very creative" commented Reid.

"I think we would all be happy if they didn't give him a name at all, the last thing we need is for this guy to feel more empowered than he already is." Morgan answered back.

"As long as they are warning women to be careful I don't think it matters at this point."

"Dave's right" said Hotch. "When we land Prentiss and I will check out the first two crime scenes; Dave, Morgan you take the other two; Reid head to the station with JJ work on victimology and see if Garcia has anything that can help us. I don't need to tell you that we need to find something and we need to find it soon or this guy is going to strike again."

Though he would never say it out loud Hotch couldn't help but think that they were going to need a miracle if they were going to catch this Unsub at all.

A/N I promise the story will get back to Emily very soon. Thank you for the reviews I REALLY appreciate them and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.


	3. There Lived a Princess

There Lived a Princess

Four Days ago

Early the following day the BAU team was once again going over the case file hoping to find some piece of evidence to help them find their Unsub. Unfortunately, the day before they had been unable to find any helpful evidence or clues at the crime scenes.

Prentiss, Reid, Morgan and JJ were sitting around the conference table at the police Station. Their conversation had degraded from talk of the case to a discussion about fairy tales.

"Why fairy tales?"Emily asked throwing her pen down on the table.

"I don't know" JJ answered "but I don't think I will ever look at fairy tales the same way again. This case has the potential to ruin a lot of Disney movies. While these are likely not the Disney movies Henry will be watching soon they still hold a special place from my childhood."

"So what was little JJ's favorite fairy tale?" Morgan said with a smirk on his face.

"My favorite fairy tale was Cinderella and this creep perverted it." She said with a glare directed at Morgan. "What about you Derek?" she asked with a smirk.

"I was into football and basketball thank you, I didn't have any interest in these fairy tales even though my sisters sure tried to make me part of their make believe. What about you Prentiss, what did little Emily dress up as?" Morgan said quickly deflecting the attention on to the raven haired profiler.

"I loved Snow White when I was little, I really think it had a lot to do with the fact that she was the princess I looked like the most I really had pale skin when I was little and she was one of the few non-blond princesses in the story. No offense" she said to JJ how nodded back in understanding. "And Yes Morgan I spent many day pretending to be her and at least one Halloween party at the Embassy dressed up as her. I wonder how long it will take this guy to get around to Snow White." At that question Reid quickly began flipping through the case files but before Emily could ask what he was looking for the face of Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia appeared on the screen of the laptop sitting on the table.

"This is just horrible I watched Sleeping Beauty like every day when I was a kid. Now thanks to this guy it will be months before I can enjoy it on my shinny new BluRay player."

"I'm sorry Garcia" Emily said "The best we can do is catch this guy."

"Come on Baby Girl give us something we can work with?" Morgan asked.

"I found plenty of victim overlap but I don't think any of it is going to help. All the women lived in the same general area, shopped in similar stores but where talking supermarkets and malls thousands of people shop at these places every day."

"We know he is taking them from public places around closing time." Morgan added.

"It doesn't look like he stalks his victims for very long," Emily observed.

"More likely he waits till he finds one with features he needs and grabs them." Reid deduced.

Before any of them could say anything more, Hotch and Rossi quickly came walking into the conference room.

"Two days ago another woman Abby Parking age 34, was abducted from the parking lot of her local grocery store. We only have two or three days at the most to find her before the Unsub kills her. What do we have so far?"

"He is a white man in his mid-thirties." Reid started.

"He could be sadist and we know that for a sexual sadist torture itself is the sex," Rossi added.

"He is an organized nonsocial offender, they are of above average intelligence, they plan their crimes quite methodically usually abducting victims, killings them in one place and disposing of them in another." Morgan stated.

"I believe based on the increased torture to each new victim that he is an anger excitation sadist" Reid theorized. "They believe women have the power and they want to take it away from them which certainly fits with his fairy tale fantasies. They are also the most dangerous serial killers, the suffering of his victims sexually stimulates him. He wants to be in a position to do what ever he pleases with his victims to make her suffer in a way that she could not possible defend herself against."

"This type of killer generally has a plan, he knows how to execute it and will do it over and over again as long as he can get away with it. He rehearses every detail and has all the equipment necessary to play out his fantasies. He is all about inflicting pain and suffering he may use physical or psychological as a tool to elicit the suffering but it is the suffering that is most important to him." Emily added finishing the profile that Reid had started.

"That defiantly sounds like our guy and it is clear he is using both physical and psychological torture to harm these women." JJ agreed.

"This guy has found a specific kind of torment turning these fairy tales into playbooks for torture and death and he is going to get worse with each new victim." Rossi said providing a glimpse of what the future could hold if they didn't catch this guy soon.

"Yet this Unsub seems to be picking and choosing which parts of the story he can use to torture these women with and everything else in the story is unimportant to him." Reid added.

"We don't know exactly what he is doing to the victims, we know it results in bruises and broken bones, usually a broken wrist and broken ribs but we can't seem to figure out what he is going them that results in these bruises and broken bones. I feel like we can't get a handle on this guy because we don't know exactly what he is doing, how much is from fairy tales and how much he is adding." Morgan said clearly getting frustrated with their lack of information.

"The books he leaves at the scenes are untraceable you can buy them in so many places, no fingerprints were found at any of the scenes, everything is paid for in cash. This guy is clearly organized and smart with access to large amounts of cash which likely means he has money, there have been no reports of large amounts of money being stolen before or during the last month." Prentiss provided checking her facts with the information Garcia had provided them with less than an hour before.

"There was likely a stresser of some kind that happened a little over a month ago that made this seemingly wealthy smart man plan and execute these abductions and murders." Hotch added.

"But why fairy tales?" Garcia asked, up until now she had been silently listening.

"Likely has to do with the stresser. Plus fairy tales have the perfect woman, beautiful, and usually in need of rescuing giving the man the feeling of being needed. But in these cases he isn't rescuing them he is killing them" Morgan said attempting to answer the question.

"A final act of torture and a pretty big one too," Rossi countered.

"It also appears that he is using these stories to explore ways of killing, poison; drowning; cutting of their heads; burning and he is evolving getting more brutal with every killing almost as though he were working up to something." Morgan added.

"I agree and I don't understand why he started with the fairy tale that he did."

"What do you mean Reid?" Hotch asked.

"Well I have been reading a bunch of fairy tales and I don't understand why he would start with Sleeping Beauty, the story offers very little in way of providing a map for torture and the killing is almost impersonal he didn't learn much about torture and killing based on this story."

"Well maybe he wanted to just get it over with and he picked the easiest one." Morgan guessed.

"But that doesn't fit with the way he acts, as Rossi said "he has this all planned out he is building but this is such a small start more like a test."

"What are you getting at Reid?" Hotch asked getting impatient.

"I realized when Emily said her favorite fairy tale was Snow White." Emily blushed a little when Spencer spoke about her, Hotch noticed but Reid didn't and continued on. "If you were going to start out poison someone why chose an injection?" Everyone stared at him blankly so he tried a different approach. "If you were going to poison someone what's the easiest way to do it?"

"Poison their food" Garcia said supplying Reid with the answer he wanted.

"And what is Snow White other than giving a girl a poison apple and watching her die. Not to mention if you read the original Grimm's tale the evil queen tires to kill her twice before the apple."

"Reid's right, if this guy was learning from each killing why not start with that story, it practically has a built in road map on how to torture and kill." Prentiss added.

"Plus if he feeds her a poison apple he can then torture her by telling her it is poisoned and watch her freak out and die." Morgan said thinking out loud.

"That's a lot more teaching then simply injecting poison into a person." Prentiss agreed.

"He must have had some reason to choose Sleeping Beauty over Snow White." Hotch said flatly.

"Maybe a personal preference, we have all been talking about our favorite stories maybe Sleeping Beauty is his favorite or he hates Snow White." Prentiss said, trying to provide him with a logical answer.

"Maybe he couldn't find a good way to poison an apple or he couldn't get the right drugs?" Garcia said "oh that gives me a idea, I will get back to you Princes and Princesses."

"Or maybe it's too important to him or could be what he is working up to, so he saved it for last or at least later." Rossi said finally understanding what Reid was getting at.

"Well when we catch him Reid you can ask him, hopefully we will get to him before he has time to get that far. If you think the Fairy Tales he is using can help figure out who he is then run with it if not lets move on to something else. We are running out of time and I for one do not want another dead body." Hotch told him ending the conversation.


	4. Beauty and the Beast

Ch 4 Beauty and the Beast

Two Days ago

A little before nine in the morning, JJ came rushing into the conference room where the rest of the team sat working.

"Abby Parking was just found mauled to death by dogs." She said as an uncontrollable shiver ran down her back, she still held a fear of dogs from the case four years ago when Reid had been kidnapped and she was attacked by a pair of dogs. "She was found in the back yard of a house that was on the market to be sold. The previous owners had already moved out, the Realtor found her or what was left of her. The house sits on four point five acres of land much of it woods and it seems the Unsub set the dogs after her."

"What book was found at the scene?" Morgan asked not really wanting to know.

'Beauty and the Beast" She answered flatly.

"So in our Unsub's mind Beauty just go eaten by the Beast" Rossi said shaking his head.

"He is continuing to evolve." Prentiss commented.

"Prentiss, Rossi, and I will go to the crime scene, Morgan and Reid help JJ create a profile we can give the public, with so little evidence to go on we are going to have to hope that someone out there has seen him." Hotch Said as he, Emily and Dave quickly left the room.

The crime scene was further outside of town than any of the other disposal sites. Once they arrived Rossi and Hotch quickly headed towards the back yard where the body was found.

Emily began to follow them yet before she got too far from the car she felt this strange feeling that she was being watched. She turned around and scanned the crowd. It was common for an Unsub to return to the scene of the crime sometimes to even try and inject himself into the investigation. But all she saw where a bunch of bystanders taking pictures with their cell phones. She suddenly felt very silly; shaking off the feeling she quickly followed her fellow agents.

The three spent the next half an hour looking around the crime scene and talking to the police officers who were first on the scene and with the Realtor who discovered the body.

Rossi turned around to the other two, "This guy is far too smart, he never leaves a trace and we just can't seem to catch a break. We can't even find anyone to give the profile to except the general public and they haven't been able to provide any help. How can he get away with all of these abductions and murders without being seen." Dave said echoing Morgan's question from the day before.

"We need him to slip up and usually that means another victim but we have five victims now and we have learned almost nothing, no witnesses, nothing." Hotch said visibly frustrated he hated difficult cased like these, where the dead bodies kept stacking up and they could do nothing to prevent it.

"The Police didn't find any of the dogs that attacked and killed her?" Rossi asked.

"They are checking with animal control but I don't think we are going to find them." Hotch answered him.

Rossi noticed that Emily wasn't paying very much attention. "Emily are you all right?"

"Yeah I just—yeah I'm fine" she said, though for some reason she couldn't get over the feeling she had earlier. "There was no evidence that the Unsub was inside the house it was locked up and there was no sign of forced entry." She said quickly covering for her previous statements.

"It appears that he stayed outside, the police are trying to find any clean foot prints but it doesn't look like that is going to pan out, the ground is soft and the dogs we running all over this place. Nice way to dispose of evidence." Rossi said.

"How can anyone get away with five fairly complex murders and never leave a trace?" Emily asked in disbelief.

"I don't know, lets head back to the station, we aren't going to find anything else here." Hotch said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the station Morgan and Reid had finished a basic profile for JJ to release to the media. While she made the necessary preparations for the press conference the others attempted to find some way to catch the Unsub.

"Ok he never leaves a trace of himself, he grabs women from public places close to their homes and then leaves their bodies in an area just outside the city limits of New Haven. "Morgan said grumpily from his chair.

"He is getting more confident." Hotch added.

"His plans and methods of torture are growing more complex and yet the time between abductions is getting shorter. It almost feels like he has already mapped out these plans far in advance." Prentiss said.

"If he follows his current pattern he will take another woman in two days." Reid determined.

"Good thing JJ is warning the public, maybe if people are being extra vigilant then someone will see something, maybe if we get lucky the next potential victim can avoid him all together." Rossi said hopefully.

"Luck hasn't been on our side at all during this case." Prentiss injected.

"Our luck has to change sometime," Rossi countered.

"This guy has to be to torturing these women at some other place and then killing them at these crime scenes."

"Morgan's right the only blood and prints found at any of the scenes belonged to the victims." Agreed Hotch.

"That would make it easier to prevent any trace of him to be left behind." Rossi added.

"It's interesting with the first two women they had no sedatives in their system while the last two and I would bet Abby Parking all had been given sedatives ." Prentiss commented.

"With the last three he has kept them for longer periods of time it is possible he is using the sedatives to control them further." Reid hypothesized.

"Ok There has to be someone out there who saw something. JJ is asking anyone who believes they might have seen anything to contact the hot-line. I want us to split up, each of us will head to one of the abductions sights tonight around the time these women were kidnapped, talk to the people who are working at that time and look around for places where the Unsub could have hidden himself while he waited for these women." Hotch ordered.

Everyone nodded in agreement, doing anything was better than waiting for another woman to be abducted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That was how Emily Prentiss came to be standing in front of a video store a little after eleven o'clock at night. The parking lot was almost entirely empty; the only other business next to the video store was a local pizza place and it had closed an hour before she got there. She had already spoken with the two teenagers working the late shift at the video store. They swore they didn't see anything that night a month before.

She then headed back out to the parking lot to search for a place where the Unsub may have hidden himself while waiting for Angela Banks.

She was nearly to the back edge of the parking lot when she heard a noise from behind her. She turned around but nothing seemed out of place. The next thing she knew someone had delivered a hard blow to the back of her head, she never saw him coming.

Emily Prentiss only had a few moments of blinding pain before the world went dark.


	5. Who's the Fairest

Who's The Fairest

_Emily Presntiss was scared_.

Present

Emily sat starring at the steel door waiting for her captor to return. As she lay there she attempted to mentally prepare herself for what was about to happen. It didn't help that her head was still a little fuzzy from whatever drugs the unsub had injected her with. Never the less she tried as best she could to clear her head and compartmentalize the fear rising inside her. This was not the first time she has been used as a punching bag by an Unsub, but she has never been the play thing of a sexual sadist.

Whoever this guy was he was planning on killing here and he was going to put her through hell before he did it. The team didn't know exactly what this man had done to the previous five women but they knew the lasting effects the unsub's torture left behind. Emily wasn't sure if it was better to be in the dark about what was to come or if would help the knot in her stomach and her mental preparation if she knew.

That thought was interrupted by the Unsub as he entered the room carrying a pink nylon cord. Before he could do anything Emily began to talk to him.

"I know why you are doing these things to these women I can help you. I know the first time you killed it felt wonderful and none of the others felt that good. I know you want it to feel good again but it never will let me help you." She attempted to reason with him the plan had very little chance of success but it was all she could do and she had to try.

The Unsub didn't seem to agree with what she had said and in response he punched her in the stomach. "This is my grand and wonderful plan, each victim has provided me with the perfect piece for my work of art and each kill has provided me with all release I desire and then some, now shut up."

He waited a few moments for her to recover and then grabbed her by the hair and forced her around to the other side of the bed so that she was facing the camera and his back was all the camera could see. "I hope your friends enjoy the show." He said with a grin, "Now who is the fairest of them all?"

She wasn't exactly sure what he was asking and she wasn't in a frame of mind to cooperate with him so she remained silent. This was not the answer he wanted and so he slapped her face with the back of his hand. "What is your name?"

Now she knew what he wanted but she still wasn't willing to give it to him even though her face was now throbbing. At her lack of response he grabbed her face and pulled her so that she was inches from his face. "TELL ME YOUR NAME" he yelled at her. Still she remained silent every bone in her body was determined to deny him, though her resolve melted a little bit when she saw the glint of steel. In response to her silence he pulled out a knife and sliced deeply into her upper left arm. "Tell me your name."

Emily was engaged in an internal battle, part of her wanted to give in and tell him her name so he would stop hurting her. But the other part of her refused to give in, refused to play his game, and refused to let him know her name simply because it was what he wanted .

Seeing that she wasn't planning on answering him he grabbed her left arm and pushed him thumb into the wound he had just made. Emily hissed as the pain flamed through her arm. "Tell me" he whispered in her ear.

"Emily" she panted out through the pain, it was an automatic self preservation response to stop the burning pain . He released her arm and stepped back.

After a moment he forcefully and quickly flipped her over on to her stomach. He then proceeded to pull out the ribbon lacing up her corset. He moved so quick it took several seconds for her to understand what he was doing.

He took the thick pink nylon cord and began to re-lace the corset with it, he kept pulling it tighter and tighter, the corset was made with steel stays instead of whale bone which allowed the Unsub to fracture Emily's ribs and compress her lungs making it very difficult for Emily to breath. As he pulled the cord tighter Emily began to struggle against him as best she could given her position on the bed. He ignored her struggles and continued to tighten the corset. After pulling the corset as tight as he could he tied it and flipped her back over, he stepped back and watched as Emily struggled to breath.

Emily lay there fighting to breath while this vile man towered over her smiling. Later when she was thinking clearly she wondered why she refused to show him how hard it was to breath and how close to panicking she was. She knew this guy got off by seeing her in pain so why not put on a show make it look like she was in more pain than she was or at this point how much pain she was actually in. Why not give him what he wanted she knew the torture would end faster that way.

But she wouldn't give into this guy no matter how painful it was or how emotionally traumatic it was. She knew refusing to giving in was the only thing holding her together psychologically. She could heal physically and emotionally but she would never be able to heal if he psychologically broke her and if she ever got out of this hell she was not going to let this guy take her life away from her.

So she laid there slowly suffocating and she used all her will power not to struggle instead she focused on taking one labored painful and shallow breath after another. To her it felt like he stood there watching her for an eternity; but in truth it had only been five minutes and soon it became clear that the Unsub was losing patience. He wanted to see her suffer and struggle and he wasn't getting that. So he punched her in the stomach knocking the wind out of her.

This got him exactly what he wanted. She couldn't breath and began to struggle a bit fighting for air. All thoughts of not fighting went out the window once Emily couldn't breathe, all thoughts in general were gone as her survival skills kicked in and she began clawing at the offending garment which was preventing her from breathing. He captor stood there watching her with a big smile as she suffocated.

She quickly became light headed, after about a minute the Unsub flipped her over once more and with the knife cut the nylon cord, he heard her take a gasping breath as she could once again breath. He wasted no time removing the cut cord and re-laced the corset with the ribbon. The re-laced corset was far from comfortable but it did allow her to breathe rather normally. When he was finished he flipped her over one last time.

He grabbed her face pulling her closer to him, "I bet your hungry" holding her face tightly for a moment he then released her throwing her back on the bed. He walked out of the room returning immediately with a basket of apples. He grabbed one setting the basket on the floor. He returned to her and forced the apple into her mouth "Eat" he demanded. With little choice she took a bite and began to chew. He placed the unfinished apple in her hand.

"I must get back to work on your coffin don't worry I am being very precise it will be air tight. Just a couple days of fun and you will be ready. Goodnight Emily." He said with a big toothy smile, he then turned and left the room.

Emily just laid there on the bed. Once she heard the door lock she let the apple fall out of her hand and onto the floor. She was tired of fighting and she finally let the pain and emotions take control.


	6. Just Emily

Ch 6

The tears began to fall down Emily's face. Slowly and silently at first then they quickly turned into giant sobs. She pulled her feet up onto the bed as she cured herself into the fetal position. She desperately wanted to roll into a tight ball and block out the world. Unfortunately the sharp continuous pain from her ribs prevented her from doing so. The position was a defense mechanism a fairly primitive one to stop the pain but it wasn't working which only caused Emily to become more frustrated.

She hated the fact that the Unsub had laced back up her corset it felt too tight. She felt trapped as though it was still suffocating her. She desperately wanted to rip if off and the fact that she couldn't even get it off if she wanted to made her cry harder.

She was no longer Agent Prentiss FBI she was being reduced to a stupid helpless damsel in distress from one of those stupid stories. Agent Prentiss hated to cry and Agent Prentiss beat people up and shot threatening Unsubs. Agent Prentiss was tough and great at compartmentalizing. But Agent Prentiss was gone and all that was left was Emily and Emily cried when she was scared and in pain, Emily was emotional and Emily needed to be rescued.

She couldn't reason with this guy, he was too smart, too organized and too goal oriented. He would do and risk everything to finish his plan he would never stop until he was killed or arrested. She hoped that would happen before he killed her.

The thought of being placed in a glass box and left to suffocate scared the hell out of her. She has just experienced what it would be like—her lungs still burned from it—it was a terrifying death. The thought of it alone was enough to make her freak out and she desperately tried to get air. In the back of her brain she knew was being trusted into a panic attack. But just like everything else she was powerless to stop it. She couldn't breathe, couldn't relax and couldn't stop crying.

Emily was not one to cry often, she was very good at compartmentalizing everything she saw during her working hours. There were days when she would come home from a really bad case and just cry but she almost never cried in front of people, especially in front of the team, that wasn't how she operated, a lesson taught to her by her mother. But now stuck in the den of this monster the lesson was gone along with her ability to compartmentalizing. She couldn't wear her mast of indifference any more this was far to personal.

When she had been held captive and beaten by Cyrus he had inflicted bruised that were meant to look bad but didn't leave much lasting marks. She had meant it when she told Reid that the bruises looked worse than they were. Cyrus had only bruised her ribs which hurt like hell, but this guy broke some ribs, the pain was ten times worse; it was a sharp searing and continuous pain. Logically she knew that have the corset on was preventing her from moving and actually lessening the pain she could be in but that didn't mean she wanted it on, it was a means of torture and she wanted nothing more then to remove it and prevent it from ever hurting her again.

If it had just been the pain she could have taken it, but there was a much bigger psychological element at work. He told her he was going to kill her, told her how he was going to do it and he just showed her how it was going to feel and she knew he wasn't bluffing. She had spent days helping the police try and catch this man and they had come up with nothing. And in her mind she couldn't help but feel that there was no chance of anyone finding her and no chance of escape.

To psychologically control a captive one only needs to appear to hold all the cards but every once in a while the captor really is holding all the cards and this was one of those times. He was in control, he decided when he would hurt her, how he would hurt her and there was no way out. He chose when she lived and when she died and he chose to make –what could possibly be her last days of Earth—a living hell filled with fear and pain.

As much as she didn't want to she couldn't help but feel like a captive princess who disparately needed a prince to save her. The man she wanted to save her was not a prince he was one of the finest FBI agents she knew and she would rather have her life in his hand over a prince any day. These thoughts didn't surprise her but she didn't expect how strong her desires where.

Crying from her place on the bed all she wanted was for Aaron Hotchner to open that door sweep her off the bed into his arms and carry her out of there. These fairy tales were seeping into her consciousness and she knew it was a reaction to being held hostage. Still all she wanted was for Hotch to tear the corset off her tell her the guy was dead and take her away to a waiting ambulance. She wouldn't even argue with the EMT she would go willingly. Not the most romantic thought but there wasn't much romance or glamorous about being tortured and killed. But it was Aaron she wanted to get her out of here.

She had slowly been falling in love with her boss, she wanted to say that this has started when he nearly got blow up in New York but if she was honest these feelings probably started about six months after she joined the BAU. The feelings had grown so slowly it was unnoticeable for a very long time. She should have realized there were some feeling there when was willing to give up her dream job to protect him, but she didn't.

She became a close friend over the years and then came Foyet. She knew something was wrong when he didn't show up for the case, he always has his phone on, she knew that but she kept telling herself it was nothing. But as the time passed and he didn't show she became desperate to know what was wrong and later desperate to find him. Then when she saw him in that hospital bed it was a relief but she has also been filled with dread. He could have died, if he had died the important parts of her would have died too. Afterwards she just wanted to make sure he was recovering and healing, especially after Haley's death eight months ago.

She had begun to think of him as Aaron in her head over the last year but she never called him that out loud, she was always very careful only Dave called him Aaron. Part of her had wanted to tell him how she felt but it was never the right time. A romantic relationship could ruin both their friendship and careers. Then one night about two months ago after Jack had gone to bed they were sitting on the couch talking about nothing of any great importance. Emily was in the middle of telling some story when out of the blue Hotch kissed her. She was shocked at first and then over joyed at the prospect that he had similar feeling for her. Yet as soon as he had finished kissing her he began apologizing.

"Emily I am so sorry"

"No Hotch I like it."

"I know but I can't, I'm your boss and I know that sounds pathetic but if I was going to ask you to risk your job, your heart, and our friendship I would want to give you some sort of guarantee. And right now I can't guarantee anything, I don't know if I even have a heart to give you. But I like spending time with you and talking with you, I feel better after talking with you. I know it is a lot to ask but will you stick around no promises except the promise of good company and good conversations?"

She agreed freely, "I will take you anyway I can' get you, I will always be here for you and Jack, no promises needed."

They sat in silence for the rest of the night with the TV on in hushed tones until she began to doze on his shoulder. They never talked about that night again, they continued on talking and keeping each other company as they had done before the kiss. Yet despite what she said to him that night Emily couldn't help but want more and she would sometimes catch herself day dreaming of the day when he could make promises.

But she also knew that as long as Aaron and his son were alive and well and she got to spend time with both of them than she could live keeping her feelings to herself. But now she was going to die and her only regret was going to be never telling him that she wanted more, never getting to kiss him again. God she didn't want to die.

She had been able to regulate her breathing a bit as she though of Aaron though the tears refused to stop. But the thought of never getting to see Hotch or any of the others again caused her panic to grow. She wanted to get out, she didn't want the unsub to hurt her again and she didn't want to be locked in this room by herself anymore. A new round of gut wrenching sobs over took her, they came so fast that she was barely able to breath.

The panic attack began to take complete control over her and all she could see was Hotch's face and that only made the attack worse. The more she thought about Aaron the harder she cried and the more she began to panic and the harder it became to breath. And it wasn't getting better anymore it was getting worse.

Emily couldn't control the tears or her breathing anymore. She was finally caught in a full blown panic attack and unsurprisingly she began to hyperventilate. "Aaron" Emily gasped softly; she couldn't stop herself as his name escaped along with a moan. Soon she was barelyg getting any air into her lungs between the sobs and the world rapidly began to go dark as Emily fell into a blissful unconsciousness.


	7. The Ones Left Behind

Ch 7 The ones left behind

Two Days ago

It took them several hours to realize that Emily wasn't coming back from the video store and she wasn't going to answer her phone. Fear ran through Hotch's veins at first he hoped that she had gone back to the hotel for the night. But he knew that was a pipe dream none of them had gone back to the hotel since they checked in several days ago. They had been working around the clock the whole time even though they still had little to show for it.

When they realized that Emily wasn't answering her phone Garcia traced it to the parking lot of the video store. When they arrived they found her cell phone abandoned at the far end of the parking lot and her bureau issued SUV but no other evidence of what happened to her.

"He has her, the Unsub took her" Morgan Growled.

"He had never taken a second victim from the same location and he has only taken locals up till now." Rossi added

"Do you think it is possible that he had returned to the scene of the abduction and Emily caught him and he took her to protect himself." Reid offered.

"It's possible but if that was the cause it is likely we would find evidence of a struggle possibly blood nothing looks out of place" Hotch said trying to keep the concern out of his voice.

"You think he specifically meant to take her, that would be a change to his MO he has never stalked a victim before." Morgan Questioned.

"Unsubs have been known to follow the investigation maybe he decided to up the stakes now that the FBI is involved. Or maybe he is use to seeing a woman he wants and taking her so maybe he saw Emily and decided he had to have her or he has evolved even more. Do you think he saw her at the Parking crime scene yesterday?" Rossi asked

"I think that would have been the most likely time for him to have seen here. It is likely he has come back to every crime scene which means he is good a fitting in with the other onlookers. I fear that he has decided to make her his next victim either way." Hotch answered dejectedly.

"What fairy tale do you think he has moved on to?" JJ asked even the thought of it turned her stomach sour.

"Snow White" Reid practically yelled "Emily said it herself she said that snow white was one of the only princesses without blond hair and she had the pale skin and—"

"Just stop Reid not right now" Morgan hissed he didn't want to think what could be happening to her at that very moment.

"Sorry" Reid squeaked "The good news is that if he follows his pattern he should keep her sedated for a day to two before he starts hurting her. It is possible that we could find her before anything happens to her."

"You're right Reid right now we have to focus on doing our job and getting this Unsub." Rossi said with an air of optimism he wasn't actually feeling.

With that they left the abduction site and head back to the station. All through the ride back Hotch was deep in thought. It was always his biggest fear on any case that one of his agents would end up kidnapped or a victim to their Unsub. But he had a bigger fear that it would be Emily and he wouldn't be able to save her it was his worst nightmare and it seemed to be coming true.

He knew that Emily was quite capable of taking care of herself but this Unsub was different. Every move they made to try and find him ended up at a dead end and now they were desperate, Emily was missing and they all feared that this would be Unsub who finally managed to kill one of them. They have been relatively lucky in the past, everyone always made it home alive. But as Emily had pointed out luck was not with them on this case.

For the next two days the BAU Team frantically searched under every rock they could think of to find Emily and they still had nothing. Then Garcia was sent a link which led her to a live video link of Emily. They were relieved to know that she was still alive and she looked unharmed which made everyone breathe a sigh of relief. But that relief was short lived as they watched the Unsub hit Emily and stabbed her in the arm. They were forced to watched as the he tortured her, suffocating her and they watched as she slowly lost control fighting the pain the man was clearly causing her. They knew she was strong but they also knew that Emily understood exactly what was going to happened if they didn't find her. And she knew how slim the odds of them finding her were. None of them were surprised to see the tears running down her face once the Unsub left the room.. This man was taking her to her breaking point and near death and then allowing her to live so he could kill her later.

They couldn't tear their eyes away as they watched her cry. She never looked directly into the camera and Hotch couldn't help but wonder if she knew it was there. He wanted her to look at the camera he needed to see her eyes to see how broken she was, he needed to know that she hadn't really give up, that she was still willing to fight.

JJ had tears in her eyes as she watched her friend in distress and she felt so helpless as Emily began to have a panic attack. "Oh Em" she exhaled.

"It's ok Prentiss we will get you out of there I promise." Rossi said softly trying to will her to calm down.

"That much force would have likely broke a few ribs, which would cause a great deal of pain she needs to stop crying or she's going to pass out." Reid exclaimed.

"She can't Reid she is scared and panicking and we can't help her. Hotch said thrusting his empty chair into the table. "We need to find something."

"He mentioned something about finishing her coffin do you think he is going to make it out of glass like in the story?" Reid asked

"Given what he has done in the past I would bet he is making a glass coffin." Rossi answered

"There are only so many places where a person can buy can buy glass and welding materials" Reid added

" Maybe we can find where he bought them" Hotch said directing his request toward Morgan. "Garcia can you trace the video link?"

"I think so but it is going to take me a while, a few days probably." She answered.

"Work as fast as you can, we only have two to three days max. Get Kevin to help you. Plus analyze the video see if you can get a clear shot of his face and run facial recognition on it."

"Got it sir I will be in touch." Garcia said closing the phone connection between them.

"Find me something, there has to be something, no one is this good, we just have to find it." Hotch demanded and everyone around him began looking through pages and reports desperate to find something.

Hotch then turned his eyes back to the video link of Emily. He watched as her panic attack got worse and she began to hyperventilate. Then Hotch heard her say his name, it came out as a moan. This whole situation was driving him crazy and Emily calling out to him only made it worse.

It was tearing him up inside to watch the Unsub torture her. He hated when any member of his team was in danger or hurt. But Emily was now special to him and it took all of his resolve not to break something, he wanted to break all the Unsub bones. Almost three months ago Aaron Hotchner realized that he was falling in love with Emily Prentiss.

The realization had come to him rather slowly; it had taken him months to move past the guilt he felt over Haley's death. But once his guilt started to fade he began to notice everything she had done for him and Jack. She had been there for him through everything that had happen. She was always there to offer support and help. She never pushed him to talk about how or what he was feeling and she was always there to listen when he was ready to talk. She answered the hard questions Jack had, the ones he could never find the right answer to. She even helped him go Christmas shopping and wrapped the presents. But more than her being there for him, she was funny—really funny. She knew how to make him laugh and she helped him enjoy life once again.

The realization had come to him several weeks ago. They were flying home on the jet and he turned and caught her laughing at something Reid had said. She looked so beautiful and that was all it took for the light bulb of emotions to click in his head. He understood exactly what all those feeling he had for her were; he was falling in love it was like a breath of fresh air after holding your breath for a long time.

He felt a bit giddy and he liked feeling this way. From that day on he had trouble thinking about everything else. He had forgotten what being in love felt like. It was all consuming. This was the reason he joined the drama club to be with Haley even though he had no talent for acting.

As he though back over the last few months his realization of love was not all surprising he often found himself trying to make her laugh when they weren't at work and pairing himself with her when they were on a case.

Though just because he realized he was in love with her didn't mean he knew what to do about it. For a few seconds he tried telling himself that he felt wasn't love that it was just because they were friends but that sounded like a lie even to him. He was falling in love with Emily Prentiss that much he knew for sure. He just didn't know how to tell her or if he even should. Part of him the damaged part of him couldn't help but think that maybe she would be better off without him. But he knew her, she would yell at him if she knew he was thinking those types of thoughts. Also she was a girl who liked to make decisions for herself. The issue of their working relationship, he being her boss, didn't worry him too much, that was the one think he knew how to handle, this type of thing happened every once in a while. It was everything else that he was unsure of and then he had kissed her. He hadn't planned on doing it she was talking and he had this strong desire to kiss her and for some reason he gave in to the feeling. But the moment he did it he panicked he didn't know if he was ready to have a relationship with her or if he was capable of having a relationship with anyone again. He was scared and so he asked her to pretend it never happened and for some unknown reason she had agreed and nothing changed.

Then this happened and the thought of losing her was unbearable to him and it was a real possibility that they were not going to find her in time. He felt as though he was being eaten alive, he hated watching her hurt and not be able to do anything.

When she was first taken almost three days ago he made a promise that he would tell her how he felt if they got her back safely. It made him feel a little bit of a jerk, it took her getting kidnapped for him to get up the guts to tell her. And now that he wanted to tell her he couldn't and he couldn't rescue and after three days he was getting really tired of feeling this way. He had failed one woman he love he was damn well going to do everything in his power to get her back.

"She's still hyperventilating and panicking, she needs to calm, down stop crying and take deep breaths." Reid said drawing Hotch's attention to the computer in front of him.

"Of course she is panicking, she can't breathe very well, this guy was suffocating her, she is scared and not really up to thinking clearly. If I were her I would be a disaster." JJ tried to explain to Reid what Emily was feeling.

"But she is going to pass out if she doesn't calm down." Reid explained highly frustrated that he couldn't help his friend.

"Maybe that would be better at least if she is unconscious she won't be in pain." Rossi said sympathetically

As Reid predicted a minute later Emily lost consciousness and her breathing began to slow and even out.

"We are going to find her I don't care what it takes." Hotch said with strong determination in his voice. "I want her picture and the sketch of the Unsub all over the TV and Internet there is someone out there who knows something there has to be. We will get her back we have to." He said the last words quietly to himself.

"What shape will she be in when we get her back though?" Morgan asked as he watched Emily sleep on the screen.

"We are going to get her back and help her recover." Hotch said with such conviction in his voice that no one questioned him.

"He gave her apples." Reid pointed out changing the subject.

"He isn't feeding her; he is keeping her weak so he can control her." Morgan added.

"She should eat the apples then" Reid said flatly.

"If you had been kidnapped and dressed up as Snow White would you eat the apples? They could be poisoned." JJ commented.

"I hope they aren't" Hotch said "pretty soon, once she wakes up again those apples are going to look too good to resist. It is another form of torture."

A/N Thank you all for reading the story I hope your are enjoying it and thank you to everyone who has written a review I greatly appreciate them all thank you.


	8. Apples

Hotch was correct, for early the next morning Emily woke in a tremendous amount of pain and she was starving. Her eyes immediately went to the basket of apples sitting on the floor. She stared at them for the longest time, a war raged inside her. She was starving and her empty stomach had her looking longingly at the apples. But her mind refused to give into her captor, he wanted her to eat them and she wasn't willingly going to do anything the Unsub wanted.

After what seemed like an eternity she slowly and painfully got up off the bed. The cement floor was cold against her feet and it felt good. Grabbing an apple off the top of the pile she then stiffly returned to the bed gently sitting on the edge. She then pulled her feet back on the bed, lying with wise on the bed still facing the camera.

Not once had she looked directly into the camera. She knew her friends were watching but she couldn't look at them, not yet, she wasn't ready for that. She was embarrassed to have them watch him beat her and watch her cry, the whole situation was better to deal with if she forgot they were watching her at all.

She remembered what it was like when Reid had been kidnapped by Tobias and how hard it was to watch the videos they were sent of him. This camera had been on since her torture began and it appeared that it wasn't getting turned off till it was time for him to kill her. She couldn't imagine how hard it was for them to watch everything that was happening to her

She laid there for over ten minutes just staring at the apple the inner war continuing to rage. Finally she sat up with tears once again streaming down her face she took a bite of the apple. She began to chew and as she did the tears turned into sobs. She hated having to give into this guy and she was angry with herself for doing so, she felt so weak. She forced herself to take a second bite and she began to chew once again but she couldn't finish, her brain and her stomach rebelled against her and she spit the chewed apple on the floor and she threw the unfinished apple on the down with it.

"I won't do it, I will not give into you" she said crying harder. Then she looked up at the camera for the first time. "I won't do it I can't." She knew at least one member of the team was watching. And she knew if it was Hotch she would tell her to stop being so stubborn and eat the damn apple. She needed some strength and eating would help, but she couldn't give into this guy and she hopped Hotch would understand why.

She laid back down wrapping her arms around herself and slowly she moved so she was lying on her side. She didn't want to think about the apple, her captor or the camera anymore, so she closed her eyes and thought of Aaron Hotchner.

She began to fantasies of what her life could have been with him and Jack. Going on picnics, lying on the couch watching movies and staying to spend the night, vacations on the beach the three of them a real family and then maybe one day there could be a baby.

She fell asleep to these thoughts, her dream land far better than the nightmare she was unable to escape.

Hotch sat there watching the video feed of Emily he had been watching her sleep on and off all night. It was almost six when he noticed her beginning to wake up. Everyone else had found a semi comfortable spot around the station and had fallen asleep. He watched intently as she woke up, we watched her wince as she tried to sit up. Reid was right as usual, she clearly had at least one broke rib.

After a few minutes it became clear to him that Emily was starring at the basket of apples on the floor. He wasn't surprised, he tried to recall the last time she had eaten the day she had been kidnapped, but he couldn't remember if she had dinner or even lunch that day. Eating was sporadic when they were working on a case they all grabbed food when they could. That didn't stop him from feeling guilty, he should have made her stop and eat something, he should make sure everyone ate regularly but they were adults and Dave was better at mothering than he was.

Still that meant it was likely Emily hadn't eaten for almost four day and that thought broke his heart. He loved her and he wanted to protect her and most of all he wanted to take away all the pain she was feeling and yet he couldn't find a clued to help bring her home.

Five minutes later he saw Emily slowly get up off the bed and grab an apple from the basket then slowly return to her position on the bed lying on the bed. Every move she made divulged the extraordinary amount of pain she was in. It took her over a minute to make these movements, something Hotch knew would normally have only taken ten seconds.

He watched her as she sat on the bed just staring at the apple in her had. She wouldn't look at the camera and Hotch understood why but he really wanted to see her eyes. He loved her eyes, they were vibrant and beautiful and they would tell him how she was really holding up.

As he once again turned his thoughts and attention back to the woman on the screen he could see that tears were again falling down her cheeks. After minutes of staring at the apple Hotch watched as she finally took a bite. She chewed the apple slowly and then took another bite and as she did the tears came down quicker and harder. He wasn't even surprised when she threw the apple up on the floor with a sob.

"Aw sweetheart it's okay please eat one I promise it will be ok Em." He begged at the screen with unshed tears in his eyes. He hated to see her beating herself up while this guy tortured her.

And then as if she heard him she spoke, her voice was rough but strong and her words and the conviction behind them gave him hope to think she could survive this ordeal. "I won't give into you" she yelled at the omnipresent Unsub.

Her next words filled him with something close to joy because as she said it she finally looked directly at the camera. "I won't do it, I can't". She said looking directly at him pleading him to understand. Even though she had no idea who was watching her he still felt that she was speaking directly to him and so he couldn't help but respond.

"I know Em its okay; it's going to be okay". He understood that she would not give into this psycho, she would fight him anyway she should. And he wouldn't be the one to suggest she give in to him in anyway.

He was glad she still has some fight in her and for those few seconds he got to see those beautiful eyes. In them he could see that she was afraid but he could also see that she was not were ready to give up. She still had her spirit and will to live and for that he was thankful. He knew her tears were not a sign of her breaking down but a way to deal with the emotions and the pain she was now facing. He also knew that if they didn't save her this man would push Emily to her breaking point before he killed her.

He watched her cry herself to sleep once more and he couldn't help but think of the life they could share together with Jack. It was then he knew she would do anything to make that life a reality. He would get her out of there and they would have a life together, he would give that to her. Heaven knew they both deserved a happily ever after.


	9. Red as Blood

Ch 9

Red as Blood

Emily had been dozing on and off for hours untill the Unsub once again invaded her concrete cell. He entered the room and practically yelled at her.

"Wake up Snow White it's time for fun and games."

Emily suppressed the urge to groan as she watched the man once again walked up to the right side of the bed so the camera was unable to capture and image of his face. He was carrying an ornate hair comb, it was decorated with several blue and white stones as though it was meant to match the dress the Unsub had put her in. The teeth on the comb on the other hand were not pretty they were four inches long and had been filed to very sharp points, this was clearly for the purpose of inflicting pain.

" 'On the second day the Wicked Queen came with poisoned combs' that bitch really like her poison, unfortunately I don't have any poison for you. I don't want you losing consciousness too often so I just have a very sharp comb for you."

When the Unsub had entered the room Emily had raised herself up on her elbows. She wanted to show him she wasn't afraid of him even though it was a lie, but due to her injuries she was only able to rise up that far. He pushed her forcefully back on the bed.

"You don't have to do this I can help you." As she had done the day before she tried to reason with him but again it was to no avail.

"I don't want or need your help Emily I am having a wonderful time." He slapped her in the face with the back of his hand. "Now shut up."

Taking advantage of her disoriented state he grabbed her right arm, pushed the short sleeve of her dress up, and before Emily could prepare herself the Unsub plunged the hair comb into her shoulder. The four teeth of the comb aggressively cut through the muscles in her shoulder and Emily buckled in response to the pain.

To restrain her further the Unsub forcefully pushed on her throat with the forearm of his left arm, this achieved the desired result and forced Emily to remain relatively still. He then extracted the comb from her arm the removal of the comb was more painful then the stabbing and causing Emily to release a loud moan.

He then slowly took the comb and sliced down the whole length of her arm making deep cuts and releasing a great deal of blood as he went along. The whole time Emily could not help but attempt to fight him off with her left arm.

This only caused the Unsub to apply more pressure to her throat until she finally stopped fighting him and simply groaned in pain. The more that Emily suffered the larger the grin on the Unsubs face grew, he was enjoying seeing her in pain and he smile at the knowledge that there was much more pain to come.

He quickly wasted no time in switching to the other side of her body placing the combs in his left hand and his right arm was now pressed against her wind pipe. He repeated the process to her left arm, first plunging the comb in her arm and then slicing the whole length of her arm. The Unsub was right handed which gave him less control with the comb in his left hand; this caused him to slice deeper and resulted in ever more pain.

Emily could no longer contain her screams of pain as the Unsub preformed these tasks. He was careful not to slice any major veins in her arm he didn't want her to bleed out and die before he was done playing with her.

Emily could not help but wither from the pain and the desire to get away from him. Little did she know that the situation was about to get much worse. The Unsub threw up her skirt, to do so he was forced to remove his arm from her throat and Emily took full advantage.

She was tired of this guy beating her and using her as his personal doll. And even though it hurt like hell she viciously began to scratch the man's face and eyes. Unfortunately she had barely made contact with his face when the Unsub slammed his hand into her ribs forcing her back down on the bed. The flashing pain from her broken ribs immobilized her forcing the air out of her lungs.

The Unsub then proceeded to stab the comb into her left thigh and then began to slice down her inner thigh. Emily screamed though through the pain she was able to kick him with her right foot. She felt a wave of victory for managing to hit him but it was short lived because in retaliation he plunged the comb into her right thigh pushing it as deeply as the comb would go, a much deeper cut than he any of the other cuts. He was angry when she hit him but her screams of pain put a sickening grin back on his face. He then slice down her right inner thigh, all of this extracting more screams and moans from Emily.

He stopped at the knee on both legs again not wanting to hit a vein, he wanted her to stay awake as much as possible. Besides the sedatives he didn't want any drugs in her system he wanted her weak but as alert as possible. Once he was finished he put her skirt back down that sickening smile still plastered on his face.

He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up to him. "Now let us put this where it belongs." He proceeded to run the bloody comb through her hair, inflicting shallow cuts in her scalp as he went along, finally he used it to pull back some of her hair leaving it positioned on the left side of her head. He let her fall back on the bed.

"You have a lot of fight in you Emily I like that but tomorrow you will die and all your fight will be done. And not even your friends can save you." He said pointing at the camera behind him. "It must be eating them alive knowing they can't find me, can't save, all they can do is watch. You better say goodbye while you can."

He then grabbed an apple and threw it into her hand. "Now eat a god damn apple." He began to walk away but stopped and turned around once he was on the other side of the bed. Emily couldn't see him but she could still sense his presence nearby. "Who's the fairest of them all?" He asked and then turned to leave.

"They are going to stop you—you bastard sooner or later they will beat you." She growled at him. He stood therefore a moment then looked at the camera and gave it a devilish smile as if daring the team to stop him. He then quickly turned and left slamming the door behind him.

A/N Several people have expressed concern but I promise there will be a happy ending Hotch and Emily have to go through a little bit more before we get there though. Thanks again for reading I hope you enjoy the chapter.


	10. Alone

Alone

After the steel door slammed shut Emily remained lying on the bed clutching the apple in her hand. She was scared and frustrated all her attempts to fight the Unsub had failed she had no control and she was quickly losing what little composure she had left.

After a minute she sat up which was quite painful, she turned towards the door and mustering all the strength she had left she screamed "Go To Hell" and as she said it she threw the apple at the door. She then collapsed back on the bed faced down and began to cry. She hated crying so much it made her feel weak emotionally. But physically she was in so much pain, the stabbing to her shoulder had hit her muscles which had made it hard and exceptionally painful to throw the apple.

She was still bleeding from her newly acquired wounds and the evidence of her blood loss could be seen on the ivory sheets. She could barely move because she was in so much pain and as she laid there she could feel the wetness of the blood dripping down her arms and legs. On top of her physical pain she couldn't help but think about what would happen tomorrow. She could hear him working through the walls, working to finish the means to bring about her death, that damned glass coffin.

She was running out of time she knew that and she knew the she didn't want to die. But this guy was hell bent on carrying out his plan and no one seemed able to stop him, she was helpless and with every passing minute she was losing hope and giving in. And that made her mad, Emily Prentiss didn't give up but this Unsub kept pushing her. So she did the only think she could think of she grabbed the comb out of her hair and threw in on the ground as best she could. She no longer cared whether she made this guy made or not he was going to hurt her some more either way and eventually kill her. If she could have physically ripped the corset off her she would have done so but there was no hope of that instead she proceeded to cry harder into the sheets on the bed.

Not even thoughts of Hotch could bring her peace, they only made the tears come faster. She cried for the life they would never have, for the victims she would be unable to save, she cried for her friends the after work drinks she would never share with them again, the jokes they would never share and she cried tears of guilt for making her friends, attend another funeral. She couldn't help but turn her thoughts to her parents, the child inside her really wanted her mommy to make the pain go away. But that was never going to happened. She continued to cry at the thought that it had been over two years since she had seen her parents and now there would be conversations they never got to have, there would be no grandchildren for her parents to spoil and holidays they would never share again. She hoped they would be spared the gory details of how she died, that was more than she could say for her friends, they would at some point be forced to watch what was to come.

She wished she could spare Aaron this torture, he had been forced to listen to his ex-wife being killed he didn't need to see her die on top of that. And then she cried for the time she wasted, all the things she had wanted to do but put them off under the foolish belief that there would always be more time. And soon she couldn't stop crying her head was filled with a jumble of emotions and pain.

Emily had no idea how long she had been crying, to her it felt like hours before she was able to get the tears under control. For the moment she felt has she had no more tears to shed and with that she wiped her face off on the bed sheet then turned over and slowly sat up. She looked directly into the camera determination had now replaced all other emotions. She had no idea how much longer she had to live but she knew there wasn't much time left. She had the option to say goodbye to some of the people who mattered most to her in the world and she would be damned if she didn't take the opportunity to say goodbye to her friends.

"Guys I know time is running out and there are things I should say before it's too late. First off I have no idea where I am or who this guy is and I know you guys don't know either. And that's okay, it is. This is not your fault and the last thing I want any of you to do is blame yourselves. You all are so good at this job and each and every one of you works so hard and you give so much of yourselves to this job and it has been a pleasure working with you. I know you will get this guy just not as soon as we hoped. But it's okay we all knew this was a possibility every time we left on a case. Sometimes these things happen." The tears began to pool in her eyes, because sometimes these things did happened and they had actually been really lucky in the past but like everything else in life it looked as though their luck has finally run out. She refused to start crying again so she forced the tears back down and continued talking.

"I want to thank all of you for accepting me as a member of this team and as a member of your family. You all have been the closest thing to a real family that I have had in along time and thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.

"When you tell my parents please don't let them know everything he did to me and don't let them see this video feed, please no matter what they say they don't need to know. The 'I told you so' from my Mother will be enough." As she said that a smile came to her face she would gladly hear her mother say 'I told you so' if she only could make it out alive. Her breathing began to get slightly labored and it was taking more energy than she expected to breath and talk because of the pain in her ribs but she continued on because it was very important that she express how she felt before it was too late.

"Okay here is the part where I say something corny and very sentimental so please forgive me, I'm not very good at being corny and sentimental so bear with me. Reid you are without a doubt the smartest person I have ever met not to mention one of the sweetest. Though I might suggest picking up a magazine every once in a while, a little knowledge of pop culture helps with getting a girl.

"Morgan you have always had by back thank you I appreciate it more than you will ever know. I only wish that I could be around to see the day when you settle down with one woman because you are going to be really good at the whole family thing." No matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop the tears as they began to fall down her cheeks as she addressed each of her friends individually.

"Dave thank you for everything you may gossip like an old lady –something I love about you by the way—but you really are a great listener, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you have done for me. Penelope I have always envied your unique style and wonderful sense of humor, please do me a favor and make sure that senior picture of me never sees the light of day again." By this point her tears were falling harder and faster threatening to turn into sobs as she continued.

"JJ you are such a great friend and a wonderful mother Henry really is the cutest little boy and marry that man of yours he really is just about the last viable donor." Emily had to stop for several moments to catch her breath, between her broken ribs and the tears she was desperately fighting back it was getting almost impossible to talk. Once she managed to catch her breath her words came out slower and very labored, each word taking an extraordinary amount of effort and energy.

"And then there is you Hotch, I am so sorry this is the last thing you and Jack deserve right not. I have really enjoyed the last few months with you two, thank you for letting me in and talking to me. I am so sorry that this is going to cause you more pain that is the very last thing I ever wanted to do to you. There is something I need to tell you I was never actually planning on telling you this but that doesn't mean I haven't spent a long time dreaming about way to tell you. This was never one of those ways, but you deserve to know how I feel before it is too late.

"Aaron I think I have fallen in love with you. I know this really isn't the best time to tell you and I know it is very selfish on my part to just thrown this at you over a video feed in front of everyone. But I may never get another chance to tell you and not telling is one of my few regrets and it is the only regret that I can do anything about. Please tell Jack that I love him so much, you two are my special guys and I will miss you both very much.

"Now I have a request please don't watch what is going to happen tomorrow, I know someone has to watch but not all of you need to please I don't want all of you to watch me die. I beg you, I don't think I could bare to have you watch. I know how much pain it must be causing you and I would rather die alone it will be easier for all of us that way."She paused as the tears took control of her "I don't want to die" she sobbed

"I ...care... deeply... about... all... of... you... and... I... miss... you... so... much." Emily said breathlessly, there was barely any air in her lungs making it impossible for her to continue. And that fact that she couldn't talk anymore upset her even more.

The emotions in her heart and the pain in her body where quickly becoming more than Emily could handle. She was once again taken over by sobs and labored breaths and before too long she had passed out from exhaustion, unconsciousness once again provided her with some respite from the nightmare.


	11. The Boiling Point

Ch 11 The Boiling Point

Once again they were forced to watch as this violent and vicious man attacked their friend and colleague. They watched as Emily tried in vain to fight him and it broke their hearts a bit more when she inevitably failed. The hardest part though was listening to her scream and watching her cry.

Anger and frustration began to reach an all time high with the BAU team. They were a team who came face to face with the worst Unsubs and serial killers out there and all they could do was watch. They were all desperately grasping at straws for something anything to do, everything they came up with lead straight to a dead end. And as inevitable as it was it was still shocking when they finally snapped.

"We are not going to let him kill her." Morgan yelled directly at Hotch.

"Of course we are not going to lose her to this man." Hotch yelled back.

"We have no clues, nothing to go on except some crazy tips from every nut case out there. The profile has given us nothing." JJ shot back at the profilers around her.

"There is nothing wrong with the profile." Reid replied calmly.

"Well there must be because this has never happened before so man up, say its wrong, and fix it." JJ growled at Reid.

"Reid is right there is nothing wrong with the profile we just have no suspects or leads to use it on." Rossi explained trying to calm everyone down.

"Someone out there knows this guy." Hotch countered.

"Oh so it's my fault I'm not correctly informing the public? Well guess what everything I tell them is exactly what you've told me to say so if there is a problem then it's because you told me the wrong things to say." JJ once again yelled at the others.

"This should never have happened in the first place she should never have been out there alone." Morgan shouted at Hotch.

"So what you are saying is you think this is my fault?" Hotch countered.

"Yeah" Morgan fired back.

"So you would have done something differently if you were in charge, maybe you think you still should be leader of this team." Hotch said attacking Morgan.

"I would have never sent her out there by herself." Morgan yelled.

"No, cause you always have her back, how is that working out so far." Hotch accused.

"Emily is not some helpless doll, she knows how to take care of herself she didn't need anyone going with her." Rossi said trying to defuse the situation brewing.

"Oh so it is Emily fault she got kidnapped and is now being tortured by this psycho." Morgan fired back.

"No I'm saying she wouldn't want you talking about her like she needs to be taken care of." Rossi explained anger creeping into his voice as well.

"Well it doesn't much matter how she would feel now does it because she isn't here and we have no idea where she is, he is going to kill her if we don't find her." Morgan raged once more.

"She is not going to die stop talking like that." Hotch yelled the fury clear in his voice, he was not going to let some horrible man take her from him.

"It's the truth this guy is going to put her in a glass box and watch her suffocate and we get to watch." JJ said dejectedly.

"Did you know statistically—" Reid tried to say but Rossi cut him off.

"I don't want to hear any damn statistics right now Reid."

"This is driving me crazy having to watch him hurt her over and over again and not being able to stop him why haven't we been able to track him down." JJ yelled at Garcia through the speaker phone sitting on the table.

"I am working on it, these things can take a lot of time you know." Garcia responded desperately trying to explain, she didn't want to be part of their fight in fact she had never hear her team fight like this.

"I thought you had your boy toy helping you shouldn't that make things go faster, that is if you two are even actually working." JJ spat venomously.

"I am working harder than you sitting there saying you don't have any clues. I am the one running everything down looking under every cyber rock so don't accuse me of not working." Garcia fought back insulted by JJ's comments.

"So what we leave her to die because we can't find anything?"Morgan raged, his anger had only grown since the argument began.

"No we are going to find her." Hotch yelled louder than anyone ever excepted to hear from him.

"You keep saying that but how, I don't hear any plan oh great leader." Morgan shouted back matching Hotch's tone, all sense of propriety had left the room long ago.

"If I could I would be breaking down every door in the city to find her." Hotch seethed his face inches away from Morgan's face.

"Yeah right you know lately I wonder if you really care about anything anymore." Morgan hissed as he forcefully pushed Hotch backwards.

"Go to hell Derek." Hotch shouted pushing Morgan even harder in return.

"It's true isn't it, do you even really care if we get a break." Morgan continued to vent his anger at Hotch.

"How dare you! I love that woman, you don't think I blame myself for sending her out there alone, for not being able to find her after four days. I can't stand watching that maniac hurt her and I have no way to stop him, it makes me want to tear this city down and rip that guy limb from limb. So don't say I don't care because if anything happens to her I have to tell my son that another woman he cares about isn't coming home."

He wasn't sure what else he would have said but before he had the chance to continue Emily interrupted him.

They immediately forgot their argument and turned to the computer screen. They listened intently to Emily's heart breaking speech. Even being held captive by an unsub couldn't diminish her sense of humor, and they couldn't help but laugh at a few of the things she said. It made them miss her even more and it was hard to watch as it became difficult for her to speak. And as much as she wanted to continue talking they wanted her to continue even more. Without Emily the team was like a puzzle with a missing piece and for a few moments it was as though they were whole again. But they all knew Emily needed to conserve her strength.

"You gotta stop talking honey we are going to find you please stop making your injuries worse." Dave said quietly, he had the fortitude to know she needed to stop and conserve her strength.

"I wouldn't stop talking if I were her; if she stops she had to accept that she will die sometime soon." JJ whispered back at him.

"It's ok Em rest now we are going to come get you I promise." Hotch said softly willing her to rest.

Finally when Emily could barely get the words out she finished her goodbye, reduced to gut retching sobs they watched her cry herself to sleep. They continued to watch her sleep for several minutes, each of them absorbing what she had said. No one wanted to break the silence for fear it would break the peaceful sleep that had taken over Emily. It took several minutes until Morgan finally turned to Hotch.

"I am really so sorry I didn't mean any of."

"I feel like a complete bitch, she's stuck in there about to die, saying all those nice things and I'm out here saying horrible things to everybody and what's my excuse I'm a little tired and hungry. I am so sorry you guys especially to you Pen I didn't mean it at all I think Kevin is great." JJ apologized as she took a seat at the conference table.

"It's okay JJ don't worry about it." Garcia squeaked out, it was clear she was crying .

"I think it's safe to say we're all sorry." Hotch said hoping they could work as a team once again.

"I am sorry Reid I would love to hear your statistics" Rossi commented.

"I don't think they are going to be of any help now, actually they will likely make everyone mad again and I really don't want to fight any more."

"Hotch I am so sorry I had no idea why I said any of that." Morgan said.

"It's okay; you only did it because you're frustrated and we are the only ones to take that frustration out on. We are all frustrated and we all blew up at the same times. This is not a normal case we have never been this stuck before." Hotch knew he needed to refocus the team if they were ever going to save Emily. "The profile is correct but no one seems to know this guy. On top of that we have to watch our friend get hurt with no way to stop him. This guy is playing a game with us, but we are going to get her back. I don't know how yet but we will because I will not let this sick bastard win."

"Still I'm sorry and we are going to get her back especially for you and Jack." Morgan said softly to Hotch. He nodded a silent acknowledgment to Morgan, he was still rather uncomfortable being open with is feelings.

"Okay no more fighting we got a lot to do and not much time to do it in." Rossi announced breaking the awkward silence that had settled in the room for a few seconds.

"Garcia how much time do you estimate it will take you to trace the video signal?"Hotch asked.

"We are still looking at about ten to twelve hours."

"See if you can speed that up, that is a little more time than Emily has."

"Also, right before the Unsub left the last time he looked right at the camera twice and I think if I play with the two images I can get a good picture to try and run through the facial recognition software. I am almost done cleaning up the image then I can run it through the software."

"Great when the picture is ready send it to JJ. JJ I want you to get that picture all over the news and then take it and compare it to every name we have received from the tip line. Reid help her, someone knows who he is, I know it. Morgan check out all the community colleges that teach welding and see if any of their students paid for their classes all in cash. We know that this guy buy everything with cash now maybe he buys everything this way. And I need you to talk to Detective Klein we are going to need some glass cutters a bunch of them, no pun intended but it looks like we are going to be cutting this one a little too close." Hotch ordered.

Everyone found something to do, each with a new sense of determination. Hotch stood therefore a moment staring at the screen and thought about the words Emily had said. He hoped that if this had never happened that Emily would have told him how she really felt. He knew that he was to blame. He was the one who told her that he wasn't sure if he could love again. He gave her no reason to hope that the two of them would have a future as anything more than friends. But in retrospect he had always hoped that there would be a future for them and it would have helped to know how she felt.

"How long have you had feeling for her?" Rossi asked him quietly.

"I don't know I can't remember anymore. But two months ago I did something, stupid I kissed her."

"That doesn't sounds stupid to me given the feelings you have." If Rossi was surprised at his actions he didn't show it.

"No the stupid part came after. I told her I couldn't promise her anything and I was nowhere near ready for a relationship. Basically I told her I wanted everything to stay the way it was before I kissed her."

"That's not stupid if you weren't ready why risk hurting her."

"But that's not why I did it, I was scared and didn't want the hassle of a relationship but I really believe that if this hadn't happened, if she wasn't hours away from being murdered that I would have kept things in neutral forever. How big of a jerk does that make me?"

"Silly, stupid even but not a jerk, sometimes we can't see what wonderful things are right in front of us until someone takes it away from us."

"You know how cliche that sounds right? Do you actually write those books of yourself?" He said with a sad smile. "But I do understand what you are saying and clearly you are correct. You know what she said after I asked her if we could keep things the way they were? She said 'I will take you any way I can get you' and then she said she would always be there for Jack and I no promises needed. God she is a better person that I."

"No she is just a very smart girl who is falling head over heels for you. You better bring her back." Rossi said with a smile as he walked away.

"I will" he said to himself, he would move heaven and hell for her and he hoped to kill the bastard who did this in the process. Under normal circumstances he tried his hardest to make sure the Unsub was taken alive but today he didn't care. He wanted revenge and he wanted Emily to be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing this monster could never hurt her again.

He hoped that this was a nightmare they would all walk away from and eventually forget. And if Emily had not been kidnapped that might have been possible but now it was a pipe dream, nightmares like this were never forgotten they were record with a scar forever. A scar that you had to find a way to live with.

Hotch really wished that he could tell Emily that he was falling in love with her too. He should have never taken back the kiss and what it meant. Instead he should have manned up and told her how he really felt. But he was scared and he wasn't ready to make decisions, when he kissed her his body got ahead of his head, at least that was what he thought when it happened. But now he was pretty sure his subconscious had already made the decision and it was the rest of him that needed to catch up.

He was ready now and he was still scared but he was now afraid of never getting her back alive. Nothing could change the fact that they still had to find her and it was a real possibility that they wouldn't be able rescue her in time. That thought kept echoing in his head and it was more than he could bare, he couldn't let it be an option because he wasn't sure if could do this job anymore if she died. Hell he wasn't sure if he could breathe if she didn't live. He wasn't sure if the team could survive this one if Emily Prentiss didn't come home. He knew Garcia would find her he just didn't know if it would be in time. But he was going to ready the moment she had a location.

A/N Again thank you all for the reviews. The next chapter should be up tomorrow (bare any editing issues) I promise everything starts coming together for the team. I hope you enjoy.


	12. Take My Breath Away

Take my Breath Away

Emily had woken up hours ago and since then she had been dozing on and off. She would wake every time she heard a noise that sounded like the Unsub entering the room. As of yet he had not come but Emily dreaded the moment he would. She may have said goodbye last night but she wasn't ready to die. She would fight with every ounce of strength she had left in her body. Which wasn't much, but it was said that people on adrenaline highs could do amazing things, maybe there was a miracle waiting for her yet. A statistic from Reid would have made her feel a bit better right now.

She didn't want to count her team out of it, she still hoped they would find her in time. but with current events going the way they had she couldn't count them in either.

Finally the Unsub entered the room carrying a pistol. He walked over to her and in response she sat up ready for a fight.

"Time to die" He said with a grin and then laughed.

Before the Unsub could make a move Emily attacked him, getting that gun from him was her last chance to save herself. She flung herself at him with all her strength, she clawed at his eyes and face hoping to disorient him. Unfortunately she was no match for him, he threw her on to the bed, but she continued to fight, clawing and scratching at whatever part of him she could reach. He then grabbed her left wrist and twisted as hard as he could. Emily could hear the snap of her bone followed by the blinding pain that coursed through her arm. As though someone threw a switch all of the fight and strength to fight left her body. The adrenalin pumping through her veins stopped with the shock to her body. The Unsub could feel the fight leave her and let go of her wrist.

"They all fight just like you did but a crack of the wrist and the fight is over before it can ever start. You are all so predictable. Goodnight Princess."

And with that he pistol whipped her as hard as he could across the side of her head. The action had the desired effect of knocking Emily completely unconscious. He then stood up and left the room. He was gone for less than a minute just long enough to turn off the camera.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hotch the Unsub turned the camera off." Garcia's panicked voice said as soon as he answered his phone.

"I can see that, does that means you can't trace the signal anymore." He replied, this was the worst news he could have received and he desperately wanted to hit something.

"No I can still trace, it he left the signal open he just turned the camera off which means we have no idea what he is doing to here, we have no way to know if she is still alive. it could mean she is dead" The panic grew as she spoke.

"Keep tracing the signal we have to assume that she is still alive until we are given reason not to." He said as calmly as he could and then disconnected the phone conversation.

Some time later JJ came rushing into the conference room. "Hotch this one name keeps popping up but I can't find much more about him at all. All I can find is an old DMV photo which looks like it could be our guy but I can't guarantee that it is."

"See if you can find anything about him; find someone who knows him, it can't be a coincidence that he keeps coming up."

Before JJ could leave Detective Klein caught sight of the picture. "That is George Grant."

"You know who he is?" Hotch said becoming very interested in who this man was.

"Yeah kind of, his family is descended from one of the great robber barons from the 1880's, the family is beyond rich. He is all that is left now, his mother died several months ago."

"That could have been the stresser." Rossi added.

"But if he has so much money why isn't there any paper trail and why couldn't anyone identify him."

"His mother, Mrs. Grant, she never trusted banks she kept all her money locked up in their house. To say she was eccentric is an understatement; she also wouldn't let her son out of her sight she kept him in that house just like the money. He had private teachers who came to the house he never went to college but the rumors were that he was all about computers so he never had to leave the house."

"That could explain how he could hide the video link." Reid added.

Morgan choice that moment to return to the conference room "Hotch I checked out all the Community Colleges and I contacted the ones who had welding to see if they had a student who paid for all his classes with cash and fit the profile. Well New Haven Community College had one guy George Grant, who paid for over two dozen classes in cash, he took computer programing and stain glass window making classes and other construction based classes, plus he took biology and general nursing classes. All the classes he took were ones you would need to pull off these murders"

"If you think this is your guy you are going to need more than this before we go barging into his house, he is a very wealthy member of the community." Detective Klein informed them.

Before anyone could say anything the video feed returned. While the camera was off the Unsub had changed Emily's clothes into the classic Disney blue and yellow Snow White dress. The action would have been highly cliché if this whole mess wasn't a matter of life and death; the Unsub had put her in a glass coffin and sealed her in. She was still unconscious; he had even put a red ribbon in her hair.

"How long was the camera off?" Hotch demanded, fear and adrenaline now flowing through his veins.

"About two hours" Garcia responded.

"That means she has about two hours of air left at most, being unconscious is good she will use up less air that way." Reid said.

"Which means we have less than two hours to find her" Morgan added.

"If she wakes up and panics it could be less." Reid corrected.

"Thanks kid put the pressure on even more." Morgan shot at him.

"Sorry." Reid said, everyone was silent, they all were on edge and ready to go they just needed to know where and then Garcia interrupted the silence.

"I did it Hotch I found the source of the signal it is coming from a house belonging to George Grant outside of New Haven." She said triumphantly

"Reid, JJ stay here keep me posted on what is going on in that room." Hotch said as everyone else headed out the door.

"Bring her back Hotch." Reid said.

"I will."

It took Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Detective Klein and the local Officers forty five minutes to reach George Grant's house. In the intervening time Emily woke up, she was confused and disoriented, her head hurt from where the Unsub had hit her with the gun. She tried to sit up but hit her head on the glass. It took her a few moments to realize what was happening and then it hit her like a ton of bricks. She was in the glass coffin, she was going to die, and then the panic set in. She began to pound her fists on the glass ignoring the searing pain in her wrist. She began to scream and cry, she was in full survival mode and no longer thinking rationally.

She didn't just feel trapped she was trapped, confided on all sides unable to move in any direction and all she wanted as to be let out of this box. The walls felt like they were closing in on her and she was in the midst of a full fledged panic attack. If she was thinking logically she would have remembered that by panicking she was using up what little oxygen she had left but, logic was nowhere to be found.

"Help" she screamed over and over pleading for escape. As a result of her screams there was soon very little oxygen left in the glass box. It became harder and harder for her to breathe which did little to stop the panic that was consuming her. A short time later she began to feel light headed and a few minutes after that her lungs were burning for air. With no oxygen left she passed out.

Once they arrived it had taken very little time for Hotch and Morgan to bust down the front door. If Emily had remained conscious for a mere minute minute more she would have heard the police breaking down the door and the shoot out that inevitably followed. The group had entered to find the Unsub, George Grand standing there with a revolver in one hand and in the other was a glock that looked very much like Emily's service weapon. He was blocking their path to the rest of the house and Hotch's initial reaction was to shoot him. But flat out shooting him was not an option and he was forced to make a choice, take down the unsub or rescue Emily.

The choice had already been made days before and he whispered to Dave

"Distract him get, him to move."

It didn't take Rossi and Morgan very long to do just that and miraculously Hotch and a local officer were able to slip past the Unsub as he ranted and raved at the police and FBI. Hotch quickly found the open steel door with a glass coffin inside on some kind of platform where the bed clearly had once been. The Unsub had welded the coffin shut and Hotch was initially thankful he that has asked Morgan to get him the proper tools to get her out, but then he saw that she wasn't breathing as she was when he last saw her on the video feed at the station. He had to get her out of there quickly which meant he no longer had the time to cut her our. He was taking a moment to weigh his options when the choice was make for him. The officer with him smashed the glass on the lower part of her body, he then moved to break the glass in front of her face.

"Stop you can't just break the glass that way, if we aren't careful the glass could puncture her internal organs or put a shard of glass right into her head." Hotch warned. It didn't look like any serious damage had been done by the officer's actions but she would likely need some stitches in her knees.

Quickly he decided that the only way to get her our was to break the side panels of the coffin. He instructed the officer to break that glass as gently a possible hoping to cause the least amount of damage. It took less than a minute for the officer to break the glass but to Hotch it felt like hours. As the Officer worked Hotch heard a volley of gun shots coming from the floor above and he knew the Unsub was dead, and if he was honest he was glad. He could hear the footsteps of the officers on their way and he shouted to them.

"Were in here." All the while his attention was on Emily.

Once he was done the officer and Hotch lifted and pulled Emily out as carefully as possible. The whole process took longer than Hotch liked but once she was free he picked her up and laid her on the floor.

"We need a medic in here" He yelled. She wasn't breathing and he could only feel a faint pulse. He quickly began CPR, he knew he was probably doing more harm to her broken ribs but it was a necessary price to pay to make her breath again. It took a minute but he was finally able to get her breathing again, she began to cough and as the EMTs arrived he saw her eyes flutter open. She was quickly loaded on to the stretcher and taken to the ambulance, Hotch following her.

"Rossi take care of things here please I am going with her to the hospital." Hotch yelled as he passed his team.

"We got this Hotch don't worry, tell her we will see her soon." Rossi replied and with that Hotch and Emily disappeared into the night.

A/N See I promised, I hope you all enjoy it!

(BTW I am never going to mention the possibility of an editing issue again because the moment I did my printed copy of the story with hand written edits decided to take a nose dive into the bathtub, all is well and chapter 13 is drying as we speak and should be uploaded tomorrow, but just to be safe and superstitious, I will never ever mention the possibility of such issues again.)

Again Thanks so much for the Reviews!


	13. And They All Lived

And they All Lived

In the ambulance Hotch watched as the EMT worked on Emily. They had an oxygen mask on her and sensors that told Hotch that her heart was beating stronger than when he first got to her. Her eyes would flutter open every once in a while, it was clear she kept going in and out of consciousness. A few times she attempted to say something to him, he squeezed her hand in reassurance, silently telling her she didn't need to talk right now.

Once they reached the hospital Emily was taken away from him by the doctors and he was directed to the waiting room. He knew they would be separated but after the past few days he didn't want her out of his sights.

Hotch was in the waiting room for over three hours before he was allowed to see Emily, the rest of the team was still cleaning up all the loose ends of the case. The doctors had given Emily drugs to help her sleep so it was unlikely that she would be waking up anytime soon. Hotch just sat in the chair next to her bed, he sat there memorizing every part of her. Her left wrist was encased in a cast and her numerous wounds had been cleaned and bandaged, but even with all of that he though she looked beautiful simply because she was lying in front of him, he was no longer forced to look at her on a computer screen.

As he had told Rossi, after Haley had been killed Hotch had wondered many times whether he was too broken to even love another person again. When Haley died she made him promise that he would teach Jack love. There was no doubt in his mind that he could do that. He loved his son and made sure his son knew how loved he was. He was even sure that he could muddle his way through Jack learning to love girls and having his little heart broken by those girls. It was himself that he was worried about, could he actually go back to normal dating and romance after what happened. And more importantly was there even enough of him left to love and would anyone actually want to love him if they knew he was partly to blame for his ex-wife's death.

Hotch was pretty sure that he wasn't even worthy of playing the love game and most of the time he was fine with that. But then this happened and all those doubts disappeared he began to feel emotions that he never expected to feel again. And the truth was they had been hiding there all along. He had been falling in love with Emily his heart just neglected to tell his brain. Today he had been seconds away from losing her permanently in any capacity. And two things became instantly clear to him, he wasn't about to waste any more time and he would love her now if she left him and would continue to love her as long as she allowed him.

He had never been too concerned about the fraternization rules but now he didn't cared about any rules the FBI might have. Rules like that were broken all the time. They wouldn't be the first members of team to date each other; there had even been married members of a team. And after all this not even Strauss could deny them this happiness.

Furthermore even if things didn't work out between them, she would still be alive and hopefully a valued member of his team and after today being alive took on a whole new priority. He may one day lose her love but he was never going to lose her the way he had lost Haley. He fell asleep thinking of all the things that were now a possibility.

No one had slept in several days so it was no surprise when Hotch woke up almost ten hours later, though he was surprised he managed to sleep that long in a hospital chair. He opened his eyes to find to find JJ, Reid and Rossi sitting around the room while Emily continued to sleep. He sat up straight trying to get the kinks out of his neck and back.

"She's still sleeping Hotch and she hasn't woken up yet don't worry. Why don't you go back to the hotel shower and grab some food she should still be sleeping by the time you get back."

"Yeah okay, where's Morgan?"

"He went to go get some coffee he should be back shortly, all the paper work is done we will fill you in on the Unsub later right now you should go get cleaned up. She is the only thing on the agenda right now." Rossi said trying to persuade Hotch to leave.

Hotch quickly returned to the hotel showered and grabbed a quick lunch then raced back to the hospital, he didn't want to be away from her, he especially wanted to be there when she woke up. Though he had to admit it felt good to be clean and fed but now that he was both those things what he really wanted was to look into Emily's eyes again. But he knew he would have to wait a few more hours till her could get that wish.

"Garcia wanted to fly out here but I told her it wasn't worth it we should home in a few days." Morgan said as they sat around waiting for Emily to wake up.

"Yeah the doctor said that once she wakes up she shouldn't have to stay here too long so we might even be able to fly home tomorrow night depending on when she wakes up." Hotch replied. They were all silent for a while each of them thinking about the events that had happened over the past few days.

Hotch looked up suddenly as Emily squeezed his hand and then let out a moan. He stood up and moved closer still holding on to her hand.

"Hey welcome back, how are you feeling?" He asked staring into her beautiful brown eyes.

"I'm not sure my head is fuzzy and everything hurts." She said weakly.

"We'll get a nurse in here to give you some meds for the pain." Morgan said.

"Wait no I don't want any yet I'd rather let my head clear a bit." She said with as much force as she could find.

"That's fine you don't have to take anything you don't want to." Rossi said calmly.

"Thanks, what happened? The last thing I remember is waking up in that box what happened after that?"

"We got there a few minutes after you passed out we killed the Unsub and Hotch got you out and got you breathing again." Morgan said trying to simplify the events as well as he could so as not to upset her.

"It's really good to have you back Emily; I can't begin to tell you what it was like without you." JJ said giving Emily a big smile trying to change the subject.

"Yeah everyone started fighting with each, other please don't leave us along again." Reid begged and everyone laughed.

"You guys were fighting?" Emily asked more than a little shocked, she couldn't imagine these people fighting with each other.

"We had a little fight yes, I thought Morgan and Hotch were going to come to blows." Rossi added with a smile.

"And I said some really mean things to Garcia I think I owe her a new Troll doll or something lest she wipe out my identity." JJ laughed.

"Well I'm glad you all made up" She said with a smile. "And I am very glad you found me, how did you figure it out?"

"It was Garcia actually she was able to track the video signal back to the Unsub's house." Morgan informed her.

Soon the conversation died down and Emily and Hotch sat there staring at each other, JJ and Morgan picked up on this rather quickly.

"I think we should go call Garcia and tell her you woke up." Morgan said.

"Yeah and I for one could use some more coffee, Rossi, Reid you want to get some with me?" JJ asked coyly trying to get them to leave.

"Yeah" they both said reluctantly leaving Emily and Hotch alone.

"We'll be back in a bit" Rossi said giving Emily a smile and a wink.

Once they were gone Emily turned and asked the question she really wanted the answer to. "So what's the damage?"

"Not good but could have been worse, I was able to stop an over eager local officer from impaling you with too much glass."

"I guess I should be thankful for the small things. So are you going to tell me or do I have to wait for the doctor?"

"Well first off you are dehydrated and in need of a few good meals hence the IV, a broken wrist which I image you could have guess given the cast on your arm. Unfortunately you did get some nice cuts from the glass on your knees which had to be stitched up."

"Those things I could have guessed how are my ribs?"

"Three broken ribs, you're not going to like this but the corset he forced you to wear actually helped your ribs by making it harder for you to move it kept them in place. That is until I came along and performed CPR on you, so you are going to have to be very careful with them for the next month or so. Now for the really bad part, the cuts on your arms and legs had begun heal so they couldn't stitch them up which means they are going to take longer to heal will likely leave scars. That is except for the really deep cut on your right thigh which was beginning to show signs of infection.

They had to open it up, a small scab had managed to forming and they cleaned it out then they stitched it up. So it may be a bit more painful than the other ones but it should heal sooner which is good. On top of all that the doctor is worried about the other wounds getting infected so he has you on some harsh antibiotics which will likely make you sick for the next two weeks."

"Great that sounds like so much fun, so how long till I get to come back to work?"

"Oh you won't be coming back for a while, if you are a really good patient I may let you back on desk duty in a month but don't think I am going to let you back in the field until a doctor tells me that your ribs are completely healed."

"What if I'm not a really good patient?"She asked with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

"Well then it could be months till I let you back to your desk, and I am not playing so wipe that pout off your face." Hotch said with a laugh.

"Fine I can't see how I am going to be able to do much for the next few weeks so I have no doubt that I can be a good patient."

"We'll see, Emily about what happened"

"Aaron please I don't want to talk about it right now later I promise." Emily begged.

"Okay you're right there is plenty of time later."

"I just called you Aaron is that okay?" she asked in a shy tone.

"You can call me anything you want" He said giving her hand a soft squeeze.

"Then there is something I would really like to do." She removed her hand from his and moved it to his face. "I wanted to make sure you were real" She rested her forehead against his enjoying the moment of peace as she tried to absorb as much of his strength as she could. Reluctantly she let him go but took his hand once more.

"Emily when we get back to Virginia I want you to stay with me." Hotch asked her and she just stared back at him. "You don't have to stay with me but the doctor said that you shouldn't be left by yourself so you are going to have to go home with someone."

"No I want to go home with you I was just a little shocked that you were asking me."

"Emily I know what I said a couple months ago but I was a jerk and an idiot not to mention a coward, I was afraid of a new relationship. But I almost lost you and I know how big of a fool I was. You told me how you felt a few days ago and I want to tell you that I feel the same way, please give me a second chance." Hotch begged.

"You could never be a coward Hotch you are the bravest person I know and I told you a few months ago I will take you any way I can get you, though I like this way better than the first offer you made." He gently bent down and gave her a light kiss on her lips.

"That's good; I have to warn you the whole team and probably a few of the local officers know how I feel about you."

"How exactly did that happen?"

"Well during that fight that Reid mentioned, Morgan accused me of not caring about anything and I responded in a very loud voice that I in fact cared about you a great deal, I also may have pushed him but that was only after he pushed me."

"Wow you two really did almost come to blows what the hell happened while I was gone."

"We couldn't find you we didn't have a clue where you where, we couldn't catch a break, everyone was tired and very frustrated and we all lashed out at each other. It was really hard to watch him hurt you and not be able to stop him though I am sure it was much harder being the one tortured."

"Yeah" she said quietly side stepping the issue she wasn't ready to talk about not yet. "What exactly did JJ say to Garcia?"

"She accused her of fooling around with Kevin instead of doing her job, it didn't go over well."

"I can imagine not, that is not something I would ever say to Penelope Garcia."

"Me either." He said with a laugh.

At that moment a nurse entered the room and checked Emily's wounds and vital signs making a note on the chart at the end of the bed.

"The Doctor will be in to take a look at your wounds in a few hours in the mean time I suggest you try and get some more sleep. " With that statement she gave Emily another dose of pain medication. She gave Emily a reassuring smile and then exited the room.

Once the nurse left hey fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes as Emily started to get drowsy.

"Wow that stuff works fast" Emily joked with a yawn.

"I believe that is why they call it the good stuff." Hotch said with a playful smile

"Aaron I don't want to be alone, please don't leave me alone, since I woke up in that hell hole I have been alone and I don't want to be alone anymore." She pleaded with him quietly.

"Don't worry I'm not going to leave you, and if for any reason I have to go somewhere I will be sure one of team is always with you. You don't have to be alone."

"Thank you" she said a tear had fallen down her cheek and he wiped it away for her.

"Why don't you close your eyes and get some more sleep I think you need more than fifteen hours."

"I was asleep for fifteen hours, god how can I still feel so tired?"

"That's your body it is going to need a lot of rest to recover from all your injuries. Just close your eyes I'm not going anywhere."

"Okay" she said with a yawn as she closed her eyes. "I love you" she whispered as she let sleep over take her.

"I love you too" Hotch whispered back.

A/N Sorry it is so late tonight, tomorrow will be earlier I promise. I hope you enjoy and I love the reviews thank you so much!


	14. Tell me the Truth

Tell Me the Truth

Early the next morning Emily and Aaron where watching TV, each enjoying just being in the presence of the other. While he didn't want to break the peaceful silence they were enjoying but there was something he wanted talk about.

"You don't have to put on a brave face for me; I want to know how you are really feeling both physically and mentally. I know you are still in shock and you need to rest but when you are ready I will be right here and I just want you to tell me the truth."

"I promise, no secrets if something hurts I will tell you even if it results in a trip to the hospital." She said squeezing his hand.

"Are you sure you are feeling alrigth because you don't sound like the Emily I know." Hotch said playfully.

"Shut up" she said with a laugh "I want to go back to work as soon as I can and I know you will never let me go back until you are convinced I am in perfect condition so for now Agent Hotchner I will play your game." She said with a grin.

"Ah there is the Emily I know and love." He said with a smile. They turned their attention back to the TV the peaceful silence returning once again.

After a little while they were joined by the rest of the team who all managed to find a place to sit in the room which was a tricky feat even with Hotch sitting on the Bed with Emily.

"The jet should be ready to leave whenever the doctor releases Emily" JJ informed them.

"That's good because I would really like to go home." Emily said though she didn't add that it would be Hotch's home she was going to not her own.

"We finished all the paper work so you don't have to worry about anything." Morgan added.

"Did we ever find out why he did this?" Emily asked

The rest of the group looked at each other they hadn't decided how much they should tell Emily. They all looked at Hotch silently leaving the decision up to him.

"Emily I'm not sure it's a good idea you to hear any of this, I think you should just concentrate of moving on and getting better."

"No Aaron I want to know, I need to know, I will always wonder if you don't tell me and I don't think I can get closure unless I know about him." No one commented on the fact that she was now calling him Aaron, after what happened and the feeling they both had shared it wasn't surprising.

"Okay" he said taking her hand "But if you start to get too worked up then I am pausing this little session of profiling, I don't want you making your injuries worse, agreed?"

"Agreed" she said with a smile, part of her liked this protective side of Hotch though that would likely only last a few days and if he thought he could be this protective once she was better he had another thing coming.

"Okay" Rossi said "He had a huge number of journals going back at least twenty years not to mention he had plans and detailed drawings of his plans all over the place."

"It appears from his journals that from a small age he and his mother had an incestuous relationship that continued until she died. She would read him fairy tales and molest, him so in his mind the two became linked sexually." Morgan continued, he knew that each of them could have gone into more detail about everything they knew and found out but Emily only needed the basics.

"In his journals it is clear that he hated every woman except his mother, she was the only woman he ever loved. It is likely that she turned him against women telling him they were bad and dirty and he was only meant for her. She wanted to make sure that she would be the only woman in his life." Reid stated.

"The journals contain all his fantasies for hurting women as he got older they become much more detailed. He refined them into the murders he ended up committing. The classes he took were all classes that he needed to pull off these murders, which was his only reason for taking them." Morgan told her.

"These thoughts remained fantasies until his mother died a little over a month ago that was the stresser that is why he started to kill. He no longer had an outlet for his sexual feelings and hurting women turned him on." Rossi finished.

"Also in the journals he wrote about the murders, he took notes of what worked and what he didn't like and the changes he wanted to make." Reid said without thinking, though he immediately received glares from everyone in the room except Emily who looked like she was about to throw up.

"I think that is enough Reid" Hotch growled, Rossi had told him about that particular part of the journals while Emily had been sleeping but he had hoped to keep that information from Emily as long as possible.

"What did he write" She asked.

"Emily I don't think now is the right time for that, later once you are all healed up if you still want to know then I will tell you." Hotch said stroking her arm.

She began to protest but Rossi stopped her. "Kiddo Aaron's right you don't need to know that stuff right now." Morgan and JJ nodded in agreement.

She decided to let it go for now but there were still other things she wanted to know. "Fine but at least tell me this one thing; he said Snow White was his favorite, why?"

"Apparently his mother looked like Snow White" Reid said sheepishly earning another glare from Hotch.

"So he thought I looked like his mother?" Emily asked as a wave of anxiety flowed through her and the tears began to pool in her eyes.

"Em do not think about that right now you are here and he is dead that is what is important." Hotch whispered to her. His presence helped her calm her breathing and so she asked the last thing she wanted to know.

"What was he planning on doing after he killed me? He made it sound like I was some type of finale but men like him don't stop killing."

"He was planning on starting over in a different city; he listed a lot of different cities in the journals. It looks like he was going to spread out and go to closes major city abduct women bring them home and then dump their bodies he already had the dump sites planned out. Once he got too far away he planned to rent property, his plans covered most of the country. He was going to move from city to city, he had been planning this for a really long time. We saved a lot of women's lives when we stopped him." Rossi told her hoping to make her feel a little better and not dwell on all the horror.

"Thank you for telling me and I know it is wrong but thank you for killing him I'm not sure I could live knowing he was still out there even if he was in jail." Emily said with a few tears still in her eyes.

"So how are you feeling honestly" JJ asked.

"Well everything still hurts a lot but I can tell that a few of the smaller cuts are healing because they are starting to get itchy. I am not sure what is worse the pain or the desire to scratch and not being able to." That made everyone smile. "This cast is going to get annoying really quick too it is already starting to itch as well."

"We can all sign our names to it if that would help" Morgan joked.

"Yeah right like I would trust you with a permeate marker near me, no I think I can survive without your graffiti on it I'm not in fifth grade anymore."

"Oh hey before I forget again there is someone else you need to say hi to" JJ said pulling out her phone "I got in trouble when I didn't let Garcia talk to you last night"

"Are you still trying to apologize for what you said to her the other day?" Morgan asked.

"No I promised she could play with Henry as much as she wanted when we get home." JJ answered.

"See I told you so" Emily Whispered to Hotch and just smiled in response. The two had talked more about JJ and Garcia earlier and Emily was sure all JJ had to do was use Henry to get back on Pen's good side, Hotch was skeptical he thought it would take more.

"Penelope I have Emily here and she can't wait to talk to you." JJ said into the phone.

"Hey Pen how are you?" Emily asked

"Oh My God Emily are you ok? I am so glad you are alive, it is so good to hear your voice, don't ever do that to me again okay." Garcia practically yelled through the speaker phone of JJ's cell phone.

"I'm fine and it's really good to hear your voice too, I am sorry you had to see that and trust me I hope to never do it again."

"How are you really feeling are they giving you the good pain meds?" she asked with a laugh.

"Oh they are giving me a lot of drugs though I am not sure if any of them are good but they are keeping most of the pain away so I can't complain. Everything hurts but I hope to heal quickly. Did you hear they are letting me out later this afternoon so we should all be home tonight?"

"That's great I wanted to fly out but Morgan said to just wait that you would be home soon though tonight isn't soon enough but I am so happy you are alive. Will you be okay on the plane with all the bumps and bruises and whatnot?"

"I should be just fine don't worry Pen nothing is going to stop me from getting home as soon as possible."

"Okay well I will let you rest and hopefully that they will let you out soon and Promise me that I will get to see you get home, sometime soon don't make me wait a long time."

"Sounds good."

And with that the two said goodbye and the line went dead. They were all silent for a while until Emily spoke up.

"I just want to say I am so sorry that you had to watch what happened I never wanted any of you to have to see that." Emily said to the entire team, she had tears in her eyes once more.

"Hey no don't you dare worry about that, you didn't do that you didn't do any of it. The Unsub hurt you and he turned that camera on for us to watch. None of this is your fault don't you are feel guilty about any of it. You survived that is all that matters." Rossi said moving to her side and patting her leg. He would have grabbed her hand but the only one free was encased in a plaster cast.

"Thanks" she whispered taking a few breathes.

It was then that she realized that everyone had moved closer to the bed when she was talking to Garcia. She suddenly felt trapped and unable to breathe like everything was closing in around her. She tried taking a few deep breaths but it didn't help it was actually getting worse and she was getting close to panicking she had no idea what was happening but she wanted it to stop.

Hotch noticed the change in Emily right away, she had a look of panic on her face and she kept taking deep breaths. She was also trying to move away from all the people who were now surrounding her bed. Realizing that she was getting claustrophobic he immediately took action.

"Why don't we give Emily some room I think we might be smothering her at the moment." The group immediately moved away from her. Even Hotch moved to the chair next to the bed forcing Morgan to stand next to him though he continued to hold her hand. She had made no attempt to let go and he took that as a good sign.

Soon Emily's breathing returned to normal and the panic had disappeared. But she was getting tired and against her will she began to fall asleep. "Its okay Em" Hotch said when he noticed her yawning and shutting her eyes. "They aren't going to let you out till late this afternoon why don't you get some more sleep." She nodded in response and soon she was asleep once again.

Once she was asleep everyone but Hotch decided to go get some food and get their bags from the hotel so they would be ready to go when Emily was released. JJ promised to get both Hotch and Emily's stuff including Emily's cell phone which was still in evidence at the police station.

Aaron Hotchner just sat there stroking her hand thankful that the drugs where allowing her to sleep peacefully. The more sleep she got in the hospital better because he knew once they got home the nightmares would soon invade her dreams.

A/N They are all going home to Virginia I felt that it didn't do the story justice to end it here I felt obligated to show at least some of Emily's recovery so that Emily and Hotch could have a real happy ending, I hope no one minds. I hope you enjoy that chapter and thanks for the reviews because I enjoy them very much.


	15. White as Snow

Ch 15 White as Snow

Later that day the doctor finally released Emily, he made her promise not to go to work until she was cleared by her own doctor and he extracted multiple promise from both her and Hotch that she would take it easy while she was home. Hotch had already made it clear to both Emily and the doctor that she wouldn't touch a piece of work till a doctor cleared her.

As a result of her wounds she was unable to wear any of the clothes in her go bag (not that many of them were clean either). The nurse was kind enough to get her some scrubs to wear and though she felt ridiculous in the blue pieces of clothing she knew they were far more comfortable than any of the sweats she had at home.

If clothing was difficult with her injuries, walking was a colossal ordeal, every move she made pulled at her stitches or worse threatened to break open her unstitched wounds. The lacerations on her inner thighs created the most trouble and caused a great deal of pain whenever she tried to walk. Hotch insisted on her sitting in the wheelchair until they got to the car. She really didn't try and fight him on the issue, moving from the bed to the chair was difficult enough there was no way she was going to be walking out of the hospital on her own.

The car ride was quiet as Hotch drove to the airport, Rossi sat in the backseat allowing Emily to sit in the passenger's seat. She didn't speak to either of them, she just looked out the window. It was funny to think that she hadn't seen the grass, trees or even houses for over a week. She spent the whole ride with the window partly down soaking up the fresh air that came rushing in. The car ride was actually relaxing for her, but all the changed when they arrived at the jet.

The moment she stepped onto the plane she knew something was different. The jet that once felt spacious now seemed tiny and cramped. She felt like the walls were closed in on her, as though she was once again back in the glass coffin, restricted and gasping for air. Immediately she began to have trouble breathing and her heart started to race. She wanted to get off as quickly as possible but she forced herself to walk further into the plain.

"Has the jet gotten smaller?" Emily said producing a nervous laugh to cover the panic that was rising inside her.

"No, don't tell me you're getting to grand for us Prentiss now that you had your own private hospital room."

"Morgan I don't think having a private hospital room is going to give me an inflated ego. All I was saying was it feels very warm in here." She growled at Morgan as Hotch helped her to the couch. Once she was in a comfortable position he took the seat across the aisle from her.

While sitting there her sense of panic did not get better. As the rest of the team took seats around the plane things began to get worse. She continued to feel trapped and all the memories of the past few days flooded back. It was so hard to breath and her palms began to sweat. The team kept moving around situating themselves and getting drinks and snacks, this made it so much worse as they walked past invading what little space she had. She tried taking deep breaths in a failed attempt to calm down but it felt like no matter how much air she took in it wasn't enough. She thought she had gained some control over her panic attack until the plane doors where closed. Being sealed in to a box pushed her over the edge, she couldn't get any air to enter her lungs and she began to feel dizzy.

"Aaron…Aaron" She gasped trying to get his attention.

Hotch looked over and Emily looked pale almost as white as a sheet and she had begun to sweat, on top of that she appeared to be hyperventilating. He quickly moved and knelt down next to her taking her hand.

"Emily are you okay?"

"Aaron I don't think I can do this?" she panted

"Do what? Do you need some drugs, are you in pain?" He wasn't sure what Emily was talking about but it was very unlike her to say she couldn't do anything, a fact which concerned him greatly.

"I don't think I can ride on the plane, I want to get off." She said starting to cry.

"Tell me what's wrong, we are about to take off, what can I do?" Hotch as getting more concerned as she spoke this was very unlike her, and as if on cue the plane began taxing down the runway gaining speed and eventually taking off.

"I can't breathe I feel trapped in here it's too small I can't breathe I need out." She cried

"Its going to be okay I promise, I think it is time for you to take some more pain pills, so you take some of them and I will try and get you as much space on the plane as I can. I need you to take deep breaths count to ten a couple of times till I get back; we will make this okay I promise." He got up and handed her a bottle of water and then began talking to his fellow teammates, he explained that Emily needed some space and they gladly gave her as much as they could in such a confined space. Hotch then quickly returned to Emily side.

"It isn't working I feel trapped like I'm back in the box." Hotch knew exactly what was wrong.

"Emily have you even been claustrophobic before?"

"What? No I have always been fine in closed spaces." As soon as she said that she understood what he was getting at. "He made me claustrophobic, he put me in that damn glass box, and made me claustrophobic." She yelled as angry tears slid down her cheeks.

"Yeah but we can deal with I promise, would it help if I sat with you?" He asked trying to calm both the anger and the panic. She thought about it for a moment and then nodded. They quickly found a new potion that put the least amount of stress on her broken ribs, her head was resting in his lap and he began stroking her hair and rubbing circles in her back. It would have been very romantic if she weren't on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Just concentrate on breathing don't think about anything else just think of filling your lungs with air and then release it." Emily did as she was told and slowly she began to calm down. She could hear his heart beating steadily from her position in his lap and she was pretty sure that the constant beat of his heart calmed her more than anything else.

"Talk to me" she said softly "I don't care what you talk about it can be cars, sports, doesn't matter just talk to me because it helps." She begged softly.

'Okay but I warn you I don't know all the unless information Reid does."

"It is not always useless and please just talk about something. How is Jack?"

"Jack is good he is spending the next few days with Haley's parents. He usually spends one weekend a month with them so it was already planned and I didn't know when we would be back so I saw no reason to break from his schedule." She nodded signaling for him to continue talking.

"Did I tell you he decided he wants to play T-ball this summer, a bunch of his friends from pre-school are playing so he wanted to do it too. And since soccer went so well this spring I thought it was a good idea. Jess signed him up a few weeks ago and he had his first practice a couple of days ago."

"I am sorry you missed it."

"No it was probably as good thing, Jess said that all the kids had trouble with the bats and where almost hit each other through the whole practice. I would have been a nervous wreck thinking that he was going to hit someone or get hit. But according to Jess he looks very cute in his little uniform, which I thought you would enjoy hearing."

"I can't wait to see him in it."

"He will be very excited when you are healed enough to come see one of his games."

"Which will be in what a month?" She said with a laugh.

"If you are lucky and I mean it."

"I thought I made it clear that I am not going to fight you on this. I made a promise to myself that if I was rescued that I would follow the prescribed medical treatment and I meant it."

"Ah the truth comes out and I know you, you say that now but once you start feeling better you are not going to listen. But remember I am not afraid to call your mom and tell her you are not listening to your doctor."

"You play dirty Hotchner and we will see about you calling my mother. Now talk about something else not my injuries, that doesn't help."

"Sorry I told you Reid would be better."

"But I'm not in love with Reid"

"Which is good for me. Okay since I am clearly not good at this why don't I read to you instead?"

"You brought a book with you, you never do that." She said more than a little surprised.

"I decided to pick up a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five, I heard you and Morgan talking about it a while ago so I thought I would give it a try. It is always good to have a book around, just in case."

They both knew what he was saying, he bought the book because she liked it.

"Reid could you grab the book out of my bag?" Hotch asked quietly. Emily closed her eyes and continued to take deep breaths while she waited. She thought it was so sweet that he had one of her favorite books with him simply because it was her favorite.

A minute later Hotch had the book and began to read. Emily had read Slaughterhouse-Five many times and as Hotch read Emily began to relax into the comfort and familiarity that came from a favorite book. It was like your favorite soft old sweater on a cold rainy day.

Reading aloud from the book and the pain meds had the desired effect Hotch had hoped for. Her breathing evened out and soon she was asleep. Hotch continued to sit there with her head in his lap stroking her hair and silently reading the book. He strayed there the whole flight home he didn't dare disrupt her now that she was asleep and he didn't want to leave her alone.

He knew that Emily's new found claustrophobia had the team a little worried and he couldn't blame them. Coming back from an experience like the one Emily had suffered could be very hard and he knew that many agents would never be able to come back from something like this. That was why he wanted to make sure she told him how she was really feeling, he wanted to make sure she was actually recovered. The rest of the team was doing everything they could do for her right now, they were giving her space, which Hotch was glad to see.

Emily was not someone who would do well being coddled and constantly asked if she needed anything or if she was feeling okay or if she wanted to talk. Emily usually needed to deal with things in her own way. He knew he had to walk a fine line when it came to helping her recover, he had to be there to support her yet not smother her in the process.

Above all he wanted her to know that he could be the one person that she felt comfortable enough to tell how she really feeling. If he was honest, he wanted to be the one person, the only person, she needed in life, if for no other reason than because he really enjoyed watching her sleep.

A/N Sorry about the last chapter somehow I originally uploaded the first chapter again I fixed it once I learned about it but I am sorry. Also I am sorry about any typos that there have been through the story I do try really hard to get rid of them before I put the chapter up and I try and make sure there are commas where they need to be but I'm not perfect and I can be a little tired after work, but I am still sorry for the ones that have slipped through I will try harder. I know I sound like a broken record (but it is true so I will keep saying it) thank you all for reading I hope you enjoy the chapter and thank you all for reviewing.


	16. Shampoo and Ice Cream

Shampoo and Ice Cream

Eventually the plane landed Hotch, let everyone get off before he woke her up. That way she hopefully would avoid another attack and could quickly get off the plane. When he woke her up she gave him a confused smile.

"Where are we?"

"Home, we can get off the plane now if you would like, I will get your bags." He said as he helped her stand up.

"Where did everyone else go?" She said sleepily looking around.

"I thought it would be best to let you sleep till they left so you didn't have to wait. They all said to get well soon and get some rest. I told them you would call them when you were feeling up to it."

"Thank you, as usual you were right it is much easier to get out this way." She said walking slowly through the plane using the seats to help her walk.

"I will remember you said that and probably use it against you later on." He said with a smile. She smiled back at him as if daring him too.

When they reached the stairs he helped her down and when she was on the tarmac heading for the car she took a deep breath filling her lungs with fresh air.

"I think this is the first time I have actually been able to breathe since we left Connecticut." She said.

"Just think it could be months till you get back on the jet, no more flying till you get better."

"Yes doctor and just what can I do?"

"You get to sit on the couch and read books and watch some TV, I hear there are some great daytime television shows on these days." He said with a smile. "But no work, I will not bring files home for you so don't even think of asking, I don't care how much you pout." He said and followed it with a quick kiss to her nose which made her smile.

They had finally reached Hotch's car and he unlocked the door. Helping her in he said "Let's go home."

When they arrived at Hotch's apartment he realized that they hadn't really talked about sleeping arrangements. As though Emily knew exactly what he was thinking she said "Are you going to share your bed with me?" a smile grew on her face.

"Only if you want to" He responded.

"I would like to, knowing you are right there right next to me will make it easier to sleep. Though I will admit it doesn't matter where I sleep the couch will be just as comfortable as the bed because I have to sleep on my, back I can't sleep on my side till my ribs start to heal."

"I think the bed is a good choice and knowing you are safe and next to me will help me sleep better." He countered setting her bags on the floor. "I know you must be tired I did notice you nodding off in the car. Why don't you go lie down and take a nap I will run over to your apartment and grab a bunch of your stuff and we can get more later. I will grab whatever you think you need for the next few days."

"I guess that sounds good, I would have liked to go with you, but we both know I am not going to be ready for something like that for a few days. And I am certainly not up for it right now, the flight took a lot out of me and I slept most of the way."

"Yes it will be a little while before you will be up for going places and that is okay there is plenty of time to do everything including heal." He said rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort her.

"So as far as what I want from my place" she said getting back to the topic at hand." Toiletries are on the top of my list, my toothbrush and toothpaste are two things I really must have you get, I know you have toothpaste but for some reason I really want mine. I haven't brushed my teeth in I don't know how long. And above all I want my shampoo and conditioner, I know exactly how long it has been since I last washed my hair and all I will say is that it has been way too long I desperately need it cleaned."

"That does raise the issue of bathing, we are going to have to figure something out to fix the issue, but I do have a plan to wash your hair that should work, so I will be glad to help you with that when I get back or tomorrow if you would like."

"That brings up another problem clothes, these scrubs are about twice the size of my normal clothes, I know I have some over sized T-shirts at home but all of my pants are going to be too small given the cuts on my legs."

"You are welcome to give my pants a try hopefully some of my sweats will be big enough."

"Wow first staying with you, sleeping in your bed, now wear your clothes what next." She said with a grin.

"I will leave that up to your imagination" He said with a devilish smile though once he said it he was afraid that he had gone too far given the fact that their relationship was very new. But that thought flew away the moment he heard her begin to laugh.

"Aaron Hotchner I can't believe you just said that, I always knew you had a dirty mind under that calm exterior."

"I think it is you Emily Prentiss who has the dirty mind." He said his smile getting bigger but it faded quickly when he saw her wince and cradle her ribs. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah laughing really hurts which sucks because it feels good to laugh again."

"Well I will try and not be funny for a few weeks."

"You better be joking because I like it when you make me laugh even if it hurts."

"I have a confession to make I really like making you laugh but maybe I will limit my jokes to the ones that are only mildly funny how about that."

"You have a high option of your jokes, how do you know they rise above mildly funny most of the time. But if you think you can manage that then I guess I can live with mildly funny for a little while."

"Though in all seriousness we do need to try and not aggravate you wounds."

"I know but you have to understand that sometimes my cuts and broken ribs are just going to get pulled and irritated."

"Yes but it does help to try and be careful."

"I know, by the way I want to thank you for letting me stay here and for letting me in. I know it seems like we are jumping into a full fledged relationship but after all the time I spent with you and Jack over the last nine months this feels natural." She said caressing his cheek with her hand.

"I was a jerk, it shouldn't have taken something like this for me to see what was right there in front of me all the time. I like to think that we are making up for lost time because I know I love you and I have for a very long time. This feels natural to me too believe it nor not." He reached up and took her hand and kissed it to prove the words he said.

"I never thought I would hear you say that sharing your house with me feels natural, but I am very happy I lived to see the day, I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that I lived to see today. Because I love you too."

"I like seeing you sleep and I like seeing you wake up and I like seeing you smile and I want to be there for you like you have been there for me for the last nine months. And all of the other stuff that goes along with a relationship, I am happy to wait for."

"Well I am glad you like me being around because now that you said all those incredibly nice things to me and about me I am not planning on leaving any time soon I was hoping to get fifty years out of you." She said with a huge smile on her face.

"I am going to hold you too that" He said giving her a gentle kiss on her lips. "So what else can I get from your apartment?"

"There should be a bunch of books on the bedside table and I would really like my mail. The key is on the key chain in my purse. And maybe some of my Dvds, your collection is a bit sparse the majority of them are Jack's and I think I will be avoiding those for right now."

"You are trusting me to pick Dvds for you?"

"Yeah I am very curious to see what you pick." He just laughed at her response.

All the while they had been talking Hotch had proceeded to help Emily into the bedroom and helped make her comfortable on the bed.

"Okay is there anything else you can think of that you would like me to get for you from your place?"

"No I think we covered everything at least for the next few days."

"Is there anything else I can get you before I go?"

"Could you get me some water please, flying always makes me thirsty."

"You are still a bit dehydrated too remember, so liquids are a very good thing and I would be glad to bring you all the water you would like, anything else?"

"Yeah can you grab my Ipod out of my go bag I would like to listen to some music while I fall asleep."

"I will be right back." He got a bottle of cold water from the fridge and grabbed both Emily's Ipod and her cell phone from her bag.

When he returned he could see that she was fighting to stay awake. "I brought your cell phone too in case you need anything while I'm gone. I am going to run to the grocery store too and get some food."

"Can you get some chocolate ice cream?" She asked before he could ask her.

He laughed a little because he knew that she would want something specific after what happened to her this past week, but ice cream was a very girly thing to want. But at least it wasn't something like bacon. She wasn't up for real solid foods yet, what food she had at the hospital had been simple soups so he was pretty sure that bacon and eggs weren't going to be on the menu for a while.

"Yeah I can get you chocolate ice cream. Now get some rest and I will be back as quickly as I can." She nodded in response as sleep took over her, she never even managed to turn her Ipod on. He bent down and kissed her forehead."

"Sweet dreams sweetheart."

A/N I hope you enjoy the chapter, I am sorry for the late updates but I have family visiting so the next few chapters will be up a bit late too, sorry again. I love all your reviews and thanks to everyone for continuing to reading the story I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Thanks to all and I hope you are all having a great weekend.


	17. I Want You

I Want You

He went to her apartment first and retrieved her mail that had been piling up for a week and a half and then headed inside. He went straight to her bathroom and packed up just about everything her could find. He took specific care to get her toothbrush and toothpaste. There were several different types of shampoo and conditioners and instead of picking which ones he thought she would want he took them all.

He also decided to take her body wash and lotion with him. He wasn't sure if she could or would need them but he figured that when it came to these things it was better to be safe and not sorry. He grabbed her mouth wash and deodorant as well. He then looked around the bathroom checking to see if he had missed anything, once he was satisfied that he hadn't, he moved onto the bedroom.

Hotch didn't have too much trouble finding her over sized t-shirts and he decided to take a few of her sweatpants and PJ's with him just in case they were lucky and the clothes would fit her. He knew she acted excited to wear his pants but he was pretty sure she would be more comfortable and relaxed in her own clothes.

At first he felt a bit weird going through her clothes but once that wore off he was kind of happy. She trusted him to go into her apartment without her to get her thing and pick out movies for her to enjoy. She was always so trusting of him, more trusting than he thought he deserved given his previous actions towards her. She always saw more potential in him than he ever saw in himself. That made him love her more and he was happy that he had come to his senses and allowed her into his life completely.

He moved onto her books, there were about eight books stacked up next to her bed, he took those and then went to the bookshelf in the corner of her bedroom and looked for her Kurt Vonnegut books. Based on her reaction on the plane he thought that she might like having some of her favorite books with her.

Then came the part he was most concerned about. Choosing movies from her DVD collection. He decided to stick with popular well know movies that he had heard of and stay away from the ones he didn't. He knew he was playing it a bit safe but this could be considered the first test of him as a romantic companion and he didn't want to screw up too badly.

He took a few from all the major genre, Transformers one and two, Ironman, the Hangover, Caddyshack, Pride and Prejudice, and While you were Sleeping. The only Disney movie he took was Miracle and to make up for playing it safe he grabbed all six seasons of Sex and the City and the movie. He would even agree to watch them with her, though in all truth and honesty he would probably be surreptitiously looking at a case file or something else work related. He was human after all and could only take so much.

He had filled up several bag worth of her stuff and it took him two trips to get it all down to the car. He then headed to the grocery store, he picked up every type of soft food for her that he could think of: applesauce, Jello, pudding, soup and broth; fruit juices and sports drinks to help keep her hydrated; and oatmeal and bread for toast when she had a bit more of an appetite. He got her both chocolate ice cream and Popsicle as a fun treat. He also bought more of the basics like milk and cereal for him and Jack, hoping that she would be joining them in eating those things soon. His trip took him longer than he had hoped for and he tried to get back to her as quickly as he could.

When he got back from her apartment and the store it was about 9 pm and Emily was still fast asleep. He really wanted to just let her sleep but she hadn't eaten anything since the hospital which was about six hours ago. She didn't have much of an appetite because of the shock her body had gone through and all the pills she was taking. But she needed to eat to help her heal and on top of that it was time for her to take more antibiotics and she needed to take those with food. He set to work warming up a simple chicken broth for her; he didn't want to try anything too complex on the first night home.

When it was done he put the broth in an over sized coffee mug and carried it into the bedroom grabbing her antibiotics along the way. He put the cup on his night stand then sat down on the bed next to her and gently woke her.

Her eyes fluttered open. "You're back" she said trying to sit up, he helped prop up the pillows to make it easier for her to sit.

"I got all the stuff you wanted and the fridge is now stocked so I thought you might like to have something to eat it is just some basic chicken broth" He said handing her the giant mug. "You might want to blow on it first it is still quite warm."

"Could you have found a bigger mug?" She said, she wasn't all that hungry and she was a little concerned about being able to drink it all.

"Just try and drink as much as you can. Plus you need to take you next dose of antibiotics."

"Ugh" she said "I hate them already, they make me feel like I am going to throw up."

"I know but you only have to take the bad ones for ten more days so keep that in mind and that is the reason you are taking them with food so that they will upset your stomach less."

"Right, ten more days. Did you get ice cream maybe if I have some of that with the drugs it might work better?" She said with a hopeful look.

"I did get ice cream but I think maybe we should wait till tomorrow you were just complaining about how much broth I brought you. Tomorrow will be a good day we will wash your hair and eat some ice cream."

"I suppose I can live with that, and who would have thought two weeks ago that a fun day would be eating ice cream and washing my hair." She said with a tiny laugh.

"Just think of how exciting it will be when you start eating solid food again."

"Ha ha you think you are so funny that must be one of your mildly funny jokes. So tell me what movies you did you bring back?"

"I got a little bit of everything Comedy, Action, Chick flicks, I even grabbed all you Sex and the City Dvds and on top of that I will be willing to watch it with you."

"Sure you will with a case file on the side to get you through them right? I see that no dramas made the trip or did you just forget to mention those."

"I thought we had enough drama of our own for a little while." He said ignoring the earlier comments because they both knew it was true.

"I would have to agree with you wise decision." They were quiet for a little while she sat there taking sips of the broth, after several mouthfuls she held out her hand and he placed several pills in it.

"We'll wait a little while before giving you more pain pills."

"That's good I don't want any of them yet they put me to sleep if you hadn't noticed and I would like to stay awake with you a little longer."

"That is fine but try and remember that you need to sleep, it is helping you get better.

"I just want to curl up and sleep this away but I can't actually curl up and I know that even if I could, it wouldn't work. I know that I have to come to terms with what happened, I am just having trouble figuring out how to deal with it."

"Well maybe you should try talking about it first it doesn't have to be with me, anyone of the team would gladly volunteer."

"No I want to talk to you, I trust you, I can't actually think of anyone I would rather talk to about this, I want you if that's ok?"

"I will always be here for you, you know that right?"

"Yeah I know." She said blowing on the broth and then taking a sip of it. They sat there in silence while she finished the rest of it; once she was done she put the mug on the night stand. Resting her head on his shoulder she decided it was time to talk about a few things.

"He hit me from behind, I never heard to saw him coming." She said quietly.

"Emily do not blame yourself for this, you didn't do anything wrong."

"I am an FBI agent, I should have heard him, I should have seen him, and above all I should have been able to fight and catch him. If I had done my job none of this would have happened."

"You did everything right, he was really good at surprising women, he had done it five times before you and none of those women did anything wrong either. If anyone other than the Unsub is to blame it is me. I don't want anything like this to happen to you or anyone again. I promise to never send you into a dark parking lot by yourself again."

"Aaron you cannot blame yourself it was not your fault."

"It was a little my fault, as a team in general, bad things tend to happen when we go off by ourselves, both Reid and JJ will agree with that. We don't split up very often but someone usually ends up hurt when we do and as the leader of this team I need to make sure we always go with a partner."

"I suppose that maybe true, but please don't blame yourself for this. I don't blame anyone but the Unsub." What she didn't say was that she still couldn't help but blame herself. "You know I don't even know his name."

"Does it matter he is dead he can't hurt you anymore."

"I don't know if it matters but part of me wants to know the name of the horrible person who hurt me. Also it felt like he didn't want me to know and because he didn't want to tell me, I want to know as though it would make me the winner."

"How about this, if you still think you need to know his name tomorrow then just ask and I will tell you, deal?"

"Deal" she said with a yawn.

"I think it is time for you to take more pain meds and sleep some more." He said reaching for more pills. She dutifully held out her hand and took the pills. She was feeling very tired and no longer felt like fighting him on the issue. He helped her lay back down and she tried her best to snuggle up next to him.

"I know I keep asking this but will you stay with me until I fall asleep. I am afraid that if I close my eyes this will be a dream and I will wake up back in that concrete cell.

"You don't have to ask I won't leave you. Didn't you say you wanted about fifty years out of me?" He gave her a light kiss as if to prove his point.

"Thank you for everything, I love you." She said closing her eyes.

"I love you too sleep tight. I will be here right next to you all night." He said as she gave into sleep.

It broke his heart to know she was now so afraid of being alone. Emily had always been strong and independent he hated that some Unsub had robbed her of some of that strength. He was prepared to do almost anything to get her back to the person she once was, but for now he would settle for laying there next to her helping her sleep.

A/N Sorry I didn't update yesterday daily events just got in the way but I am sorry. I hope you enjoy that chapter, Thank you all for continue to read and an extra thanks to those who review.


	18. Nightmares

Nightmares

_At first everything was fuzzy, slowly the world came into focus, she was lying on her back staring at a large florescent light. _

_Her whole body throbbed with pain and when she tried to move she ran into glass in every direction. _

_She was back, locked in a coffin, dying. _

_Immediately it felt as though someone had placed a giant rock on her chest, she couldn't breathe and panic started to set in._

_She began thrashing around tears were already streaking down her check she wanted out right now. _

_And then his face came into view, he had that evil grin on his face, the nameless Unsub who caused all her suffering._

"_You're dead" She screamed "Get me out of here". She kept screaming over and over again begging for someone to save her. _

Aaron Hotchner woke to movement next to him; he turned to find Emily tossing and turning violently around the bed. Quickly he tried to put his arms around her, pulling her close to him.

"Emily it's okay, it's just a dream wake up sweetheart please just wake up." He tried holding her tight hoping to prevent her from moving around too much. The last thing either of them wanted was to spend the night in the Emergency room getting her wounds re-stitched.

"Em wake up you're having a nightmare." He said a bit louder, he could see that she had been crying, there were tear stains all along her cheeks, now the tears were replaced with desperate screams. He pulled her further into his arms in the hopes that she would feel safe and wake from her nightmare.

Finally she woke with jolt, her heart pounding and panting to catch her breath. She looked at Hotch and burst into tears once more.

"I was back in that coffin, I couldn't get out and I couldn't breathe, the Unsub was standing over me grinning." She sobbed. "Tell me his name so that I at least know who to cruse in my nightmares." She growled through clenched teeth.

"George Grant" He said quietly.

"George Grant, seems like such an unimposing name for such a horrid person." She spat through her tears. "It felt so real, I was back there in a glass box, but it was so much worse, I couldn't breathe at all and the pain was so much worse. I was stuck there dying all over again and no one came to help there was just him standing over me waiting for me to die." She relaxed a little in his arms but the tears continued to fall.

"Emily it wasn't real, you survived and he is the one who is dead, you won, you escaped."

"You saved me I would have died if not for you." She cried

"We are a team remember we did it together, everyone did their part and you did yours, you survived till we got there, that was your job. He used that video link on you and you alone. It would have taken us twice as long to find him if Garcia hadn't been able to trace that feed. If not for that video link he may have killed a lot more women.

"We caught him and we would have never done it without you, we did a very good job despite everything that happened. My only regret is that you got hurt. I don't like it when any member of my team gets hurt and I really don't like it when you get hurt.

"Right now we both need to just focus on the fact that you are alive." He said trying to convince her that the case was over and she needed to spend her energy on getting better.

"Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm alive, the claustrophobia and the nightmares, there are times when I feel like I am stuck in this loop where I am repeating what happened over and over again. It's not all the time but when it happens it is so real." She laid in his arms clutching his shirt in her good hand and sobbed.

"This is real, I am real" He said grabbing her hand from his shirt and squeezing it tight. "I promise you it will get better. You need to remember you survived and he has no power over you anymore." He said this with such conviction that she was finally able to separate herself from the dream.

"Thank you." She whispered as the tears finally subsided.

"Always" He kissed her forehead.

"I am so tired of crying Aaron, I don't think I have ever cried this much before in my life. I never use to cry in front of people before this happened, then he came along and now I cry at the drop of a hat. It is so frustrating because I hate to cry in front of people, it embarrasses me so much and now I am always crying in front of someone, I feel so weak."

"Emily no one thinks less of you for crying. You have been through a horrific experience that most people would never survive.

"You get to cry, you get to yell and shout and no one is going to think you are weak. I know you hated the fact that we watched him hurt you and I'm sorry we watched but none of us thought you were weak we thought you were so strong.

"No one just expected you to lie there and be unaffected by what he was doing to you, we all understood. Except Reid he wanted you to stop crying so that you wouldn't pass out."

She laughed even though it caused a twinge of pain. "It is his way of trying to help."

"I know, he was worried about you, we all were, but not once did we think you were weak. And I have been with you the whole time since we rescued you and nothing you have done has made me think you are weak. I think you are the strongest person I know, you need to believe me." She nodded trying to believe what he was saying.

"How are you feeling?" He asked changing the subject. "I would imagine you could use some more pain meds, I have a feeling that the reason you had a nightmare tonight is because at the hospital they kept you on a constant stream of drugs, which kept you asleep but in a bit of a haze. Tonight is the first time you tired to sleep through the night on only one dose. We could set an alarm or something to wake you up for another dose, if you want, it might cut down on the nightmares for a little while."

"No, I would rather have nightmares than risk becoming addicted to these pain meds. I am sure you can understand." He nodded, recognizing her reference to Reid's previous problem.

"I am tired of falling asleep all the time. It feels like all I have done for the last few days is sleep and I am craving human contact. I would rather be in pain than sleep the day away."

"I understand"

"But I think that in a little while I will take some, I think I aggravated all the cuts and bruises by tossing around because they really hurt right now. But as soon as I can I would like to switch to Advil during the day and save the real stuff for night."

"I think you are going to have to give it a few days before you can manage to do that but I understand why you want to and I support your decision completely."

She laid there snuggling in his arms for a little while, then she decided to finally ask the question that had been on her mind for the last couple of days. She moved into a sitting position to see him better.

"Aaron what are we going to do about work and our relationship." She asked. "It isn't like we can keep it a secret Strauss is going to see part of those videos and she is likely going hear what I said to you."

"You leave Strauss and work to me I know how to handle it. Rules are always bent or broken and I know several people who owe me some really big favors, I have been waiting to call them in for something really important and I would say this meets that definition. You just worry about getting better; work will be there when you are ready to come back."

"You are pretty wonderful Agent Hotchner did you know that?" He made her feel so special he was prepared to do so much for her, she wasn't sure she had every fully seen this side of Aaron Hotchner but everything she saw made her love him more.

"Well Agent Prentiss I think you are pretty and amazing what do you think of that?" He gave her a quick kiss on her lips, he found that he had a strong desired to kiss her a lot and it was very nice to be able to do it just about whenever he wanted.

"Well if that's the case I think we make an excellent pair."

"I hope so." Hotch said with a smile.

"Are you sure I have to wait till tomorrow to have some Ice cream?" She said with a little pout, she didn't meant to change the subject but she wanted something sweet to erase her bad dream.

"Are you telling me you are hungry?" It had been about four hours since she had eaten the broth and he was hoping that her appetite had decided to return.

"No not really, actually I am still pretty full from before but I want ice cream." She pouted a little bit more, she knew she couldn't really eat any ice cream at the moment and she knew it was childish but she really wanted some.

"Then I am certain you have to wait till tomorrow to eat it, I don't want you making yourself sick." He was beginning to learn how cute she looked when she pouted and he found it really had to say no, but if having Jack as a son had taught him anything it was how to say 'no' to a very cute face.

"You have been spending too much time with Dave, you have the whole mothering thing down pretty well." She said sticking her tongue out at him. He only smiled in response.

"Speaking of mothering I called your mother to let her know you were alright." As soon as the words left his mouth he held his breath, he knew that her relationship with her mom wasn't always the best and she was likely to take this news very badly. He hadn't actually meant to tell her like that, he was only trying to help and warn her of a possible call from her mother.

"Wait why, how did my mother find out what happened to me?" Emily was taken completely by surprised; she didn't expect their playful conversation to turn to the topic of her mother. She didn't think her mother knew what was happening and she had hoped to keep it at that way. Emily had wished that she would be the one to tell her mother what had happened once she was better. She couldn't help but feel a little upset that Aaron called her mother.

"Your abduction was splashed all over the news." He tried to explain.

"Why" Up until now the thought that her abduction would be on the news simply did not occur to her. And as a private person the idea that all of New Haven if not the entire country, knew she had been abducted greatly violated her sense of privacy. For a moment she forgot she was talking to her boss and forgot everything the team went through to find her and she questioned him.

"Because you were missing and we had no leads. I made the call I told JJ to do it and I stick by my decision." He said a little too formally reverting back to his FBI personal.

"I understand I'm sorry I wasn't trying to say you were wrong to do it because it was the right thing to do, I just had hoped that my mom didn't know what was going on." She hadn't meant to question his decision as a leader; she would never do that to him. The whole conversation had taken her by surprised, she was unprepared and to be honest up to this point she had been talking to the man who had recently agreed to be her boyfriend, not her boss

"I assumed she knew something and as a parent I can tell you that you want to know what is going when it comes to your child and I don't think that goes away no matter how old the child gets. I am so sorry if she didn't know and I told her by calling her." He said taking a softer tone, he didn't want to upset her and he hadn't meant to be harsh a moment ago, it was still a reflex to having his decisions questioned. He knew he was doing the right thing calling her mother but he also knew that Emily would have preferred to be the one to do it.

"No you were right to call her, I just wish there was some way I could have made it easier on her. Where is she?"

"In Europe she is suppose to be back next weekend, which is the earliest she could get back."

"That is good; I should be up to seeing her by then. I really want to see her, it has been over two years since I have seen either of my parents. While I was in there for a few minutes I reverted back to the five year old who wants her mommy to make it all better. And I hated the idea of dying without seeing her again. It sounds silly but I really want a hug from her." A few tears returned to her eyes as she thought about her mother. But then her thoughts turned very serious.

"I said it before but I am going to say it again you must promise me that no matter how much she asks you will never show her those videos, my mother does not need to know all the graphic details, I will tell her want I want her to know." There was a hint of desperation in her voice.

"I promise I won't show her and I will make sure the Garcia never lets anyone else." He knew she wanted to spare her mother as much pain as possible and he would gladly help her any way he could.

"Thank you. After doing the job as long as we have I know that no parent needs to see those things happen to their child all she ever needs to know is what I tell her."

"I understand and from now on I defer to you on the issue of your mother." Dealing with one Prentiss woman was enough for him and from now on he was going to make sure it was the one who loved him.

"Wise decision I have much more experience dealing with her than you do." She said with a laugh.

"Very true, so are you ready for some more pills and maybe if you are up for it you might want to try and get som more sleep. Or do you need to watch some TV or something before you can get back to sleep?" She needed sleep but he didn't want to push her into going back to bed if her nightmare was still haunting her.

"I think I am ready to try and go back to sleep, so hand over the stupid pills and we'll see if I can get back to dreamland with happier dreams this time, preferably with a cute FBI agent in them." She said with a giant smile.

"No one has called me cute since high school." He said handing her some pain pills

"Then you are way past due." She said then thought for a moment. "Sorry you probably prefer gorgeous, handsome, and sexy."

"Take the pills" he said blushing.

"Did I manage to make the great Aaron Hotchner blush?"

"I think I preferred cute, now I feel like the wizard of oz." He said as he helped her lay down and then turned out the light.

"Oh I got lots of names for you but they will have to wait till we can do certain extra circular activities."

"I look forward to hearing all the names you have for me, but for now let try sleeping."

"Sounds good" she said with a yawn. She snuggled up to him as best she could. She felt safe and warm next to him and it wasn't very long till she was once again fast asleep.

A few hours later Hotch found himself trapped in his own nightmare.

_He was once again racing to save Emily from death, she was trapped in that glass box and he needed to save her, except this time it took too long and he got there too late and Emily was dead. _

_He knelt down next to her body and tried in vain to revive her. He kept performing CPR trying to breathe life back into her body but nothing worked. The EMT kept telling him that she was gone but she couldn't be, he had to save her, he couldn't lose her. _

_Eventually Morgan and Rossi were standing next to him. _

"_Hotch she is gone" Morgan said._

"_No I promised I would save her."_

"_Aaron you have to stop you can't save her, come on get up and let them take her away."_

"_NO"_

He bolted straight up in bed, panting and drenched in sweat. 'It was just a dream, it was just a dream' he repeated to himself as he tried to calm down and catch his breath. He buried his face in his hand for a moment and then wiped the sweat off his face.

He looked over at the sleeping form next to him for confirmation of his mantra. She was right there sleeping beside him, she looked so peaceful asleep, there was no trace of pain on her face, when she was awake there was always a hint of pain hiding somewhere on her face. He needed to touch her to convince himself that she was real and his dream was only a nightmare.

He caressed her cheek then brushed away her bangs and kissed her on the forehead. It appeared that she would not be the only one having nightmares from the previous week's events. But unlike her, he didn't have drugs that would put him back to sleep.

He knew there was no way he would be able to go back to sleep for a while, his heart still had not returned to its normal rhythm. So he decided to partake in one of his favorite activities, watching her sleep. He laid on his side and propped his head up with his elbow and just watched her. Her chest slowly went up and down, the steady rhythm proceeded to calm him down and allowed him to relax once more.

A/N I am so so so sorry that it has taken me this long to update this chapter, family and life (new job, new appliances ect) got in the way a little, and I had to fight with this chapter a lot and there were a lot of rewrites it just wasn't working and I didn't want to put it out until I thought it was the best it could be. I hope I didn't unset anyone with the wait and I hope you enjoy the chapter. Thank you for reading and a big thank you to those who have reviewed.


	19. Tears

Tears

Aaron Hotchner had no idea when, but at some point he did managed to fall back asleep and he woke to the sun shining into the window around 10 am. Emily was still sleeping peacefully by his side, he wanted to let her to get as much sleep as she could and didn't want to wake her. Carefully he got out of bed and began to make breakfast. He thought after a decent night sleep she might be up to having some oatmeal. As he started to make her oatmeal he decided that it actually sounded like a good breakfast and so he made enough for both of them.

It didn't take him very long to warm the milk for the instant oatmeal and he knew it hadn't been more than twenty minutes since he had gotten up but he felt it was time to wake Emily. She needed something to eat it had been over twelve hours at this point since she had the broth. She needed food more than sleep. He felt very paternalistic for thinking this way and any other time Emily would hate to be taken care of like this but he wanted to take care of her and she was letting him for the moment and he wasn't going to waste the opportunity to take care of the woman he loved.

He was proud of himself; he actually has a tray so he could serve her breakfast in bed. He put his and her bowls on the tray and he poured two glasses of orange juice. He reasoned that she needed all the vitamins and calcium she could get but he didn't want to give her a multi-vitamin, he feared possible drug interaction with all the meds she was already on.

He wished he had a flower to put on the tray as well, but he didn't have any at home and he didn't wasn't to leave her just to buy some flowers and he really didn't want to get caught picking the flowers out in front of his building, this meant unfortunately the tray would have to go flowerless.

Carefully and with a lot more effect than he anticipated he carried the tray into the bedroom, in all honesty he didn't have much experience bring women breakfast in bed. He couldn't help but wonder if maybe things would have turned out better with Haley if he had been more romantic, that was why he was going to make sure he did things like this for Emily a lot more. But right now he was about taking care of her and that was more important than anything else.

He set the tray down between the two of them and then walked around to her side of the bed and carefully he woke her up.

"This is becoming a very common occurrence; my alarm clock is going to get jealous." She said with a yawn and a smile. Just as they had the night before he helped her sit up and then moved the tray in front of her.

"I hope you are joining me, if not you must have very ambitious expectations of how much I can eat."

"I was planning on joining you and you don't have to eat the whole bowl just eat as much as you can and try to have some orange juice it will help you feel better." He said with a grin.

"Yes mom" She teased

He moved to sit next to her on the bed; he grabbed a bowl off the tray and began eating."

"Do you want to turn the TV on?"

"Yes, thought I have to admit I am a bit afraid to turn on the TV and flip through the channels in case I run it to a Disney movie or something like that. I know it is silly."

"No it isn't silly it is completely understandable. How about I promise to skip the Disney channel as we flip through?"

"Thank you." She said playfully.

They sat there watching reruns of old TV show, Hotch didn't think that the last hour of the morning shows were a good idea, she didn't need to see the news right now, old comedies and bad courtroom dramas where probably their safest bet.

When they were finished with breakfast he took their dirty dishes and the tray into the kitchen. He was happy she managed to eat almost three fourths of the bowl and drank all of her orange juice. While it was possible that he was mothering her just a little bit he had made it his personal responsibility to make sure she recovered and when it came to food and other physical issues he knew he could be a little pushier.

When he returned she snuggled up to him and rested her head on his chest while he put his arms around her. She enjoyed being close to him and watching TV that she didn't have to think about, it felt very relaxing which was exactly what she needed right now. After watching two hours of the History Channel, Emily finally sat up and turned to face Hotch.

"Can I see what movies you picked, I think i have reached my daytime TV intake limit for the time being?"

"Yes I will show you but I was thinking you might like to wash your hair and then watch a movie and maybe eat some ice cream while you watch."

Her whole face lit up like a 5 year old on her birthday who was getting a puppy. "Yes I would love to do that. Just quickly tell me what movies you grabbed and then we can move in to the bathroom."

He listed off the movies and she seem quite happy with his choices.

"Good Job and you were worried. Okay fearless leader what is your great plan to wash my hair."

"I will ignore the Rocky and Bullwinkle joke because you're hurt." He said with a playful glare "It is a very complicated process of taking one of the kitchen chairs into the bathroom and putting it up to the sink, the height should just be right and is much better than trying to do it in the bath tub."

"Ah if you had been Fearless leader maybe Boris and Natasha would have caught moose and squirrel."

"You call me fearless leader at work and you are in big trouble Agent Prentiss." He warned with mock sternness.

"What about honey, baby or sweetheart." She teased.

"Those will get you in many different kinds of trouble and if Morgan ever says one of those names to me in a mocking way. You better run and hide."

"Don't worry if Morgan does that I will make sure he can't talk for a long time. Plus I would never say any of those names at work."

"Oh yeah right, you little Miss Emily get bored at work and then say and do funny things just to entertain yourself and usually Morgan and Reid too."

"Okay I will admit I can do that but I promise the only name I would dare use behind your back is fearless leader"

"It better be." He had to admit he liked the way she said 'Fearless Leader', but he was never going to tell her that.

"Don't worry." She said as she blew him a kiss, and then she got quite for a minute. "Do you think after we wash my hair I could try and wash off a little, I mean nothing more than washing with a wash cloth but anything would help? I feel so dirty."

"I think we can do that, but I do believe you are blushing Emily, I promise not to look in certain specific places." He smiled trying to make her feel more comfortable.

"I don't care if you look at those places, right now I would prefer it. I don't want you to look too much at the cuts and bruises. I haven't really gotten a chance to look at them but I am a bit afraid to look."

"I understand being afraid to, but don't be, and don't be afraid of me seeing them, do you think, me of all people, is going to be discussed or turn off by cuts and buries or scars. That is what you are afraid of isn't?" She nodded

"Well don't be, you are gorgeous with or without scars. I like a girl who has scars to match my own." He joked quietly, he then began kissing her a little bit more passionately that he had previously, but unlike before this time he wanted to prove to her that he didn't care about her scars. "I will even show you my scars from last year if you would like."

She was more than a little bit taken aback by his offer, she had helped him last year after he had been stabbed but he had always tried to prevent her from seeing his knife wounds. His actions made it clear that he didn't want her or anyone else to see them. It spoke volumes about how he had changed and how their relationship had changed. He really was letting her in if he was willing to show her his scars.

"I would like that." She answered softly

"Good, no more being embarrassed about your wound, because here comes the part you are not going to like very much." He took a deep breath, he knew she really was not going to be happy with what he had to say but he had no other choice.

"We need to clean you cuts and put more antibiotic ointment on them and re-badged them, the doctor recommended hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol. The doctor said that for the first few days we had to clean and re-bandage then once a day then we only have to do it every couple of days. I know this isn't something you want to do but we need to clean them"

Her face went white as a sheet she was familiar with both of products, she liked neither and she knew Aaron would prefer to use alcohol and that was the one that hurt more. Tear sprung to her eyes she didn't want those cuts to cause more pain, she was tired of pain. Cleaning her wounds was about the last thing she wanted to do.

"No please we don't need to, I don't want to." She surprised both Aaron and herself when she began sobbing uncontrollably and involuntarily moved away from him. Her mind started to spin and all she could think was the pain it would cause and how much she didn't want to be in pain anymore. She couldn't take anymore right now.

Hotch almost panicked, he hadn't anticipated this result, he hadn't meant to upset her and the last thing he wanted to do was make her cry. He didn't know what to do, they needed to clean out her cuts, they needed to make sure they didn't get infected, but he didn't want her to cry either. He pulled her on to his lap and she rested her head on his shoulder and cried. She felt so small and fragile in his arms, and all he wanted to do was hold her tight and protect her forever.

He hated that he was the one causing her to cry, he never wanted to be the one to make her cry and all he wanted to do was make it all better, but he couldn't so he held her, gave her a shoulder to cry on, and tried to make her feel safe. He started rubbing her back in circles, and all he could think was what would he do if this was Jack, what would he say?

"Em its okay please don't cry, I didn't mean to make you cry. We need to clean them out sweetheart I can't change that, we have to make sure they don't get infected. If they do you will have to go back to the hospital and they will make you take the yucky pills longer. It is going to hurt a lot I know and I wish it didn't have to" He tried desperately to make her understand and this caused her to cry a little harder.

"Shh I will try and make it hurt as little as possible and you can squeeze my hand while I do it if that would help. I could get you some crushed ice to chew on." She lifted her head from where it was hidden in his chest and through her tears spoke to him.

"You do know that I am not having a baby right, because those things you just mentioned are what pregnant woman do when having a kid."

"Sorry it was either that or promise that you can have a lollypop when it's over, I am very limited in my experience with crying people. I'm so sorry I would love to be able to tell you that we could just ignore the doctor's instructions but I can't, I can't risk you getting an infection. I'm sorry I have to be the bad guy but we have to do it."

"I know I am just so tired of being in pain I don't want to hurt anymore." She was reduced to sobs once again. Emily had never been one to run away or avoid things she didn't want to do, that wasn't who she was, but this was different she wasn't usually asked to willingly submit herself to large amounts of pain right after being used as a pin cushion by an Unsub. Every fiber of her body did not want to do it, she was tired of being strong she wanted to give into her emotions and run and hide. She was at the breaking point and fought an inner war as she cried in Aaron's arms

"Emily please I beg you don't cry, we have to do this and it is breaking my heart to see you cry over this. I don't know how to make it better, tell me what to do?"

"I don't know, all I know is that I don't want you to do it, I am so scared of you doing it." He rarely heard he say she was afraid of something and it worried him a little.

"I have to" "He repeated, rubbing circles into her back in a vain attempt to calm her down. "I know you have been through so much pain and you have been so strong and I know you are tired of being strong but I know you can do this. I will be with you the whole time unlike before you don't have to go through it alone and you can have control over how fast we go."

"But you are going to insist on using alcohol?"

"Yes it will kill the germs a lot better than hydrogen peroxide"

"And hurt a lot worse." She cried at that thought. He let her cry for a little while, she had to come to terms with this because they had to do it several more times in the following days.

After a short while her tears subsided and she just lay there in his arms and then she finally sat up. She was tired of fighting the enviable, it was time to give in and get it over with no matter how much she hated the idea. "Fine let's do this and get it over with."

"Okay, we will do this as quickly as possible. First we need to cover you cast with a plastic bag so we don't get it wet." He understood how much it took for her to agree to this and he didn't know how long her determination would last, therefore he moved as quickly as possible.

Once Emily had taken off her clothes and the cast was made as water tight as possible Aaron pulled out the rubbing alcohol, antibiotic ointment and a roll of gauze. Emily sat on the edge of the bath tub and he sat next to her as she prepared for the alcohol.

"Okay are you ready let's do you legs first, do you want to hold my hand?"

"Yes it is a good thing you are left handed or this would have never worked." She said trying to be funny in hopes that it would distract her from what was to come.

She took his hand as he poured the alcohol, there was a delayed reaction it took several seconds for the effects to start, the pain was minor at first but quickly it felt like the stinging of a thousand bees. She squeezed Hotch's hand as hard as she could and withered in pain.

"Ahhhhh" she cried as the pain continued to burn. Hotch then began to gently blow on the cut which decreased the pain enough for her to ride it out. "That hurts a lot" she panted once the pain has subsided completely.

"I'm sorry, did the blowing help?"

"Yes it did a lot, do it sooner next time please."

"You got it, are you ready for the other leg, this is the one with the stitches I need to clean it with a cotton ball therefore it may hurt a little more."

"Great just do it" She didn't want to think about what was going on she just wanted him to do it as quickly as possible.

Hotch repeated the process with the other leg but after he poured on the alcohol on he carefully used the cotton ball to clean off the dried blood on her stitches. He was correct it hurt a lot more partly because he couldn't blow on the cut until after he cleaned it and the pain burned longer.

Emily was thankful when it was over but then they moved on to the numerous cuts one her arms and Hotch proceeded to repeat the process with each one. Emily screamed out several times, she tried to block out what was going on, but unlike the pain from the stabbing itself, the burning from the alcohol seemed to take forever to go away. Finally to her relief it was over.

Hotch then proceeded to put ointment on each one and re-bandaged them. As she stood to get into the bathtub he made a full survey of her body, the cuts looked like they were healing well if not slowly which was expected given their seriousness. They would likely leave scars, hopefully only faint ones but she would have lasting evidence of the horror she survived. There were bruises all over her torso where her broken ribs where. He also knew that she had a bump on the side of her head where the Unsub had pistol whipped her, he had felt it the previous night when he was stroking her hair.

Tentatively she looked down at her naked body as he bandaged her up, the cuts looked ugly especially the stitches across her inner thigh. She instantly hated them and was thankful that Aaron was covering them. She then looked as the bruises that littered her torso they were unsightly as well but at least they would go away and she could forget the broken ribs one day. There was no way the cuts would heal completely they would leave scars, scars that would make it hard to forget what happened to her at the hands of George Grant.

Together the two of them proceeded to wash the rest of her body with a wet wash cloth being very careful not to wet the newly changed bandages. It would have made more sense to wash her off first then clean the wounds. But Hotch knew her resolve to clean the cuts would only last so long and therefore he did it first. It was the best they could do till the stitches came out the following week. While it wasn't a nice warm bath it did at least make Emily feel a bit better. He then helped her into one of her extra large t-shirts and a pair of his pants.

"I grabbed a few of you sweat pants but I think we should wait a few days till we see how they fit just in case."

"Thank you for grabbing them and thank you for letting me wear yours." She said softly.

"You are welcome to wear any of my clothes."

"I will likely stay away from the suits though" She said with a grin.

"Thanks"

"Now for the part you have been waiting for, time to wash your hair and then we will get you some ice cream."

"Will that be my lollypop at the end of this ordeal?"

"You are the one who has been asking me for ice cream every couple hours."

"So that's a yes."

He didn't answer instead he grabbed the chair and moved it into place. She sat down and he began to wash and message her head being careful of her bump. He moved his fingers through her hair massaging her scalp as he used her shampoo and then conditioner on her long black hair. His fingers felt so good she was almost asleep by the time he was finished.

"That felt so good Aaron you work some pretty wonderful magic with those fingers."

"I am more than just a pretty face you know." He laughed as he wrapped a towel around her hair as she stood. They then moved back to the bedroom.

"You lie down and I will get some ice cream. Do you need help?"

"No I think I can do it by myself I am getting better at figuring out how to move without hurting so much." She was able to get to the bed and lay down, she felt proud for being able to do it on her own. All the little thing that she had once taken for granted where now major accomplishments. By the time she had found a semi comfortable position Hotch was back with her ice cream and she noticed he had decided to join her with his own.

He handed her a bowl of chocolate ice cream and sat his bowl on the night stand.

"What movie would you like or have you decided to endure more daytime TV the soap operas should be starting soon." He laughed.

"I would like to watch Pride and Prejudice; I will skip the soaps and leave those for Rossi and Morgan."

He followed her request and put the movie on and as Keira Knightly walked across the screen he found a comfy spot next to her.

"That doesn't look like chocolate ice cream" she commented looking in his bowl.

"I saw the mint chocolate chip when I grabbed your chocolate at the store and I really wanted some."

"Good choice, for some reason I never pictured you a mint chocolate chip but now that I see you with it, it's perfect."

"I think that is a compliment and I will take it as one. If we are profiling ice cream choices Chocolate seems a bit too plain for you, you seem more like a cookie dough type of girl."

"Chocolate is not my favorite, I love cookie dough, Phish food, cookies and cream my favorite varies. But the reason I wanted chocolate was simply that I was craving chocolate and candy and cake didn't sound like a good idea right now, ice cream seemed the best way to get a chocolate fix given my current situation."

"That makes sense; I would agree your stomach probably isn't up for a chocolate bar right now."

"It feels so good to eat, I had forgotten how enjoyable it is to eating cold things."

"Well then you are in luck I got some Popsicles too, I thought they might help keep you hydrated."

"That sounds great thank you." He really did think of everything and he was great at taking care of her, which was why she let him mother her more than she would any other person.

"Time for more pills" he told her.

"Which ones?" She wanted the pain pills after their session with the alcohol but she didn't want to deal with a potential stomach ache right now.

"Both"

"Ugh" She tried to look the bright side though, she got to take them with her ice cream this time which was a lot better than taking them with chicken broth.

"Here just take these, please" He said handing her a few pills and a bottle of water.

"Thanks"

"You're welcome" he gave her forehead a kiss.

Emily didn't even make it through half the movie before she fell asleep clutching her empty bowl in her hand. Hotch took the bowl from her hands and tried to move her into a slightly better position to sleep in. He let the movie play in case she woke up before it was over.

He took the bowl out into the kitchen. There were several dirty dishes from the past few days and he proceeded to wash and put them away. He then moved on to the laundry, there wasn't a clean article of clothing in his go bag which meant laundry desperately needed to be done. He debated whether to wash Emily's clothes as well; while he knew she wouldn't need most of the clothes in her bag for a while he still decided he would wash everything that didn't need to go to the dry cleaners anyway.

Feeling fairly productive he made himself some lunch, ice cream did not make a very good lunch. He was then faced with two choices, he should check his email and messages at the office, but all he wanted to do was watch her sleep.

He decided on a compromise, he grabbed his laptop and took it into the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to her. He proceeded to check his email and every once in a while he would look over and watch her for a few minutes. It was then that he realized just how hard he had fallen for the beautiful woman next to him.

A/N I tried really hard to keep both Emily and Hotch in character while having them deal with the aftermath of her abduction so I hope this chapter is okay. Thank you so much for reading. I hope everyone has a great weekend.


	20. Scars

Scars

That evening Emily insisted on moving out on to the couch while Hotch made dinner. For himself he was pan searing a steak, they would share the fresh made mashed potatoes, and he was making her some chicken noodle soup.

"That smells amazing and I am not even a fan of steak. I can't wait for the mash potatoes, I am starving."

"That is a good sign though probably not a wise choice to have steak as your first real food. I think it best to work up to it. When you are really feeling better I will make you a delicious dinner."

"Based on the smells coming from the kitchen I don't doubt it."

"Well I am more than just a pretty face. I thought tomorrow for breakfast we could move on to toast and apple sauce?"

"Something I actually have to chew I hope my teeth remember how to do it."

"Hey I know toast isn't anything to shout about and I am sure it seems that I am making you take baby steps here but the last thing I wants is for you to end up throwing up."

"I'm sorry I don't mean to be difficult or sarcastic, you are doing such a good job taking care of me and I love you for it."

"Emily you are not being difficult sarcastic yes but that is who you are sarcastic and more than a little bit stubborn and I love that about you. I actually thought you were going to be much more difficult, but I suspect that your stubbornness may come out once you are feeling better."

"Good thing you love my stubbornness, I can't seem to get rid of it though I think I might need it in a little while because you can be pretty stubborn yourself you know?"

"I know which is why you right yesterday when you said we make an excellent pair."

"Our lives will never be boring" She said with a smile. They soon fell into a comfortable silence then out of the blue she began to talk.

"When I close my eyes I can see everything, I remember everything that happened. You would think with two blows to the head I would have some memory loss, but no I remember everything. It invades my waking hours and all I want is control over it, I don't want to walk around wondering what is going to bring the memories flowing back. I had no control over anything while I was abducted. I want control over my life and I still don't have that back, I can't go for a walk when I want to, I can't even take a shower I want my life back and to be perfectly honest I want to do more than sit in bed and eat ice cream with you." Her anger slowly dissipated and turned to tears.

Hotch quickly moved over to where she sat on the couch, he gently took her by the face and kissed her. It was no little peck on the lips instead it was as physical a kiss as he could give her without hurting her.

To both their surprise one kiss soon turned into a make out session. For Emily it was a confirmation that she was alive, that the nightmares weren't real and she had finally gotten the thing she wanted most Aaron Hotchner. It felt so good kissing him and for a few minutes she wasn't in pain, she wasn't injured, she was in the happiest place she had ever been.

To Aaron this kiss was about reassuring her that he really did want her and he would always be there for her. And after his nightmare it confirmed that she was safe alive and with him. He had wanted to do this and a lot more to her for a long time and he was finally getting a small opportunity to do so.

Finally He had to pull back, if he didn't stop soon the rational part of his brain would leave and he would begin to do several more things to her none of which was a good idea at the moment.

She let out a moan as he pulled away "That was really nice." She said softly with an impish smile on her face

"I'm sorry but we need to stop now or I may not have the self control to prevent myself from doing some wonderful things to you all of which your body is not ready for and will surely cause a great deal of pain."

"No I understand just promise we can do that again soon."

"Defiantly."

"Good, a minute more and I would have let you do all those things to me regardless of the pain and then we would have ended up at the ER getting weird looks from the nurse. And possibly burning the house down because from the smell of it I would say your steak is almost well done."

"Shit" he said gently moving her back to the couch and ran into the kitchen.

Emily could hear clanging of pans and the sizzling of meat.

"Is everything okay?" she asked

"I saved the meat and potatoes but your soup is going to take a while to cool down though once it does it should be just fine. Promise me you will never mention this to my brother he is a chef in New York. He would never let me live it down if he knew that I almost burned dinner making out with a girl."

This caused her to break out in a fit of laughter she hadn't laughed that hard in a long time but the thought of Aaron Hotchner being harassed by his younger brother for making out with a girl, was very funny to her. Soon she was clutching her ribs because it hurt to laugh yet she couldn't stop. "Don't worry I will keep you secret" she managed to get out between laughs.

"That right laugh, just be glad you don't have any siblings." It was so good to see her laugh but he didn't want her to hurt himself. "Em it isn't that funny."

"Sorry" she said getting her laughter under control.

"Your ribs okay?"

"Yeah their fine, they always hurt I am learning to ignore them."

"I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing but I will let it go for now, would you like to eat now."

"That sounds good" She said with a giant smile.

They ate dinner and it was as though the events of the last week hadn't happened. They sat there making each other laugh and all around enjoying the others company. They didn't talk about how she was feeling or the lasting effects of her abduction. It was a simple relaxing dinner soaking up each others presence.

She had moved to sit with him at the table for dinner and once they were finished eating the both returned to the couch. They eventually had found a comfortable position on the couch which allowed them to sit together but didn't cause Emily any pain. Once they found a good position she began to talk once again.

"I know I am moving past being in shock and now it is time to come to terms with what happened. All I want to do is move past it and get back to living my life. I wish that was how it worked. But I know I can't just dismiss what happened to me.

"I have decided that talking to you while it will help is likely not going to be enough; I need to talk to a professional probably one who specializes in PTSD and phobias. Doing what we do I know that I need to deal with this fully and completely, it is the only way I will ever get my life back. And if I do it this way there is nothing Strauss can do, if on the other hand she discovered you were the one helping me deal with all of this psychologically it could put our relationship and the team in jeopardy and that is one thing I don't want to risk."

He kissed her "You are one amazing person Emily Prentiss you survived hell and somehow you come back and clearly understand the help you need and still manage to worry about everyone else. All I can say is you are amazing."

"I love my job, my friends and you, I am not going to let that scumbag destroy my life. This job has shown me what can happen when you don't deal with things. I will go to as many therapists as it takes to deal with this." She wanted to make him understand that she understood how serious the situation was and she acknowledged that she needed help.

"You also know it is rare for a victim of a crime to understand they need help, profilers and agents are often the worst." He was speaking from experience as both a leader and the target of Foyet's mind games.

"I know and I can't explain why but whenever I start to think about curling up into a ball and sleeping till I am better or trying to run away from everything that has happened red lights start flashing in my head and a voice says 'Danger Will Robinson'. I actually think it is your voice in my head, keeping me safe and protected."

"Well I am glad for that but your apparent obsession with 60's TV is something we might have to talk about." He said with a little laugh.

"American Television in Europe when I was growing up was about 20 years behind it's not my fault." She pouted a little.

"I like it actually and I like that I get to be the voice in your head."

"Well you do share it the space with my mother."

"Naturally."

"You called me a victim" she said in a more somber tone.

"I'm sorry." He mentally kicked himself, he hadn't meant to call her a victim, he had actually been trying very hard not let any one call her that. He didn't want her to think of herself as a helpless victim unable to protect herself because she was anything but a victim in his mind.

"No I am now one, I know why Penelope asked JJ not to think of her as a victim it is quite a label."

"Emily you shouldn't think of yourself that way I know I keep saying this put I am going to continue to say it till I am sure you believe that fact that you survived, you're alive and you must concentrate on getting better."

"Yes I am a surviving victim but I am still a victim, I can't hide from that any more than I can the pain, remember the red lights they are flashing right now, I have to deal with this too."

Hotch knew she was right and he knew that waiting to talk to a professional would be waiting too long she needed to start talking now. He also sensed that Emily knew this and she wanted to talk now, so he helped her.

He took her good hand in his and looked directly into her eyes. "Em I know you are going to talk to a professional and that is great but you won't be able to do that for several weeks and I really think you should talk about it sooner. Please talk to me."

She took a deep breath and without preamble began to talk

"I didn't wake up for two days; he drugged me and dressed me up like a doll in that horrible dress. The corset was agony, it was uncomfortable from the beginning, it felt as though the Unsub was constantly squeezing me and it was a constant reminder of his control.

"I desperately wanted to take it off but I knew it would make him angry and for some reason I didn't want to make him angry I don't know why. But even if I had wanted to get it off I couldn't he had it tied in this strange way that prevented me from getting to the strings.

"It only got worse after he broke my ribs, it constantly felt like it was pulled too tight. I had so much trouble breathing it felt as though I was constantly suffocating, that is probably when the claustrophobia began.

"Everything was a constant struggle; I didn't want to give into him I wanted to be strong. He did everything he could to get me to fight and when I did fight back he used it as an excuse to hurt me more" she said thinking of the stitches on her right thigh.

"In the end when he was about to kill me I fought him with all I had and it was all primal instincts, my flight or flight response kicked in and I fought him and he broke my wrist." She tried to explain the feeling and emotion she had experienced it seemed very important to do so but at the same time it felt impossible to find the right words. How do you put into words the fear and torture she went through.

"Emily not giving into him kept you sane and it is what will get you thought this. You are so strong. I kept waiting for you to look at the camera so I could look into your eyes and see your stubborn determination and it was always there you never gave up. You need to keep reminding yourself of that, you never gave up he didn't win."

"I wasn't always trying to antagonize him, when he asked me my name I wasn't trying to resist him I didn't understand what he was asking but even when I did know what he wanted I just couldn't give into him. Does that make me a masochist?" Tears began to pool at the corners of her eyes.

"No it makes you a really good FBI agent who doesn't like to see an Unsub win. You also survived a week with him and lived."

"I was alone most of the time that was the hart part, while he was hurting me it was all about surviving the pain he was infliction. But after he left me then I was in so much pain, I had no way to stop it and I had to lay there with the knowledge that he would be back to inflict more pain later. And on top of that I had to sit in that room knowing that he was going to kill me. It almost drove me crazy and all I could do was cry I am so tired of crying."She said at the tears fell down her cheeks.

"The apples were a terrible, they were a torture all on their own, and it was the worst of them all because it wasn't a physical attack it was a mental one. I didn't want to eat them because he wanted me too. But I was so hungry he didn't feed me. All I wanted was to be able to eat one so I would stop feeling so hungry but I was never going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me eat an apple. Though after a day I was in too much pain I no longer wanted food. "

"I watched you that morning, you starred at the apple forever and all I could think was 'pleased just eat it' because I knew you needed food. It broke my heart to see you fighting yourself. I wanted you to eat that apple because I had hoped that if you had some food you might feel a little bit better. But I understand now that if you ate that apple you would have been giving into him and that would have meant giving up and that would have broken you. I hated to see you suffer but then you looked at me and I saw the light in your eyes and I knew you did exactly the right thing, I was wrong."

"I think it was wishful thinking but I felt like you were watching me and that you would tell me to eat and that's why I took a bite. But once I did it I just couldn't follow through. And I felt the need to make you understand."

"I understand you are so strong you are such an amazing woman and watching you only made me love you more."

"But I don't feel strong, I don't right now and I didn't back in that room. I could hear him making the coffin outside I could hear it through the walls. At the end when time was running out it was driving me crazy and shredding my nerves, I knew the more he worked the closer I was to dying. It was like waiting for an execution, I guess that was exactly what it was, an execution; I was like a caged animal. But I couldn't pace the room, I was in so much pain and all I could do was cry it was the only thing that would keep out the noise. But unlike before all my thoughts of you were unable to make things better it only make them worse. All I could think of were the things I wanted and never got to do with you and everyone else." Though it was the very last thing she wanted to do at that moment she couldn't help but cry harder.

Emily had opened up to him and Hotch thought as a sign of trust he should tell her how he felt when she went missing. He knew that nothing would make her feel better right now but maybe if he shared his feeling, she might feel better about sharing hers and crying.

"I was going crazy trying to find you and as hard as it was to watch what he did to you. I was glad the camera was there. I know you hated it but for me having that camera meant I could see you, I got to know what was going on and that you were still alive.

"The first two days when we had no idea where you were or if you were alive was horrible. I wanted to take my gun out and shoot the LEO who told me you were missing and everyone after who confirmed it. It didn't take us too long to determine that Grant had you and that made it worse because we knew how he tortured woman. I had no idea if you were alive; I dreaded the moment JJ or the officers came into the room because I was so afraid that they were going to tell me they had found your body. I couldn't bear it, so when I saw you alive on that video feed I was given back my hope of saving you. And when Garcia traced that video feed all I could think of was getting to you, holding you in my arms. I don't think I took a breath until you stated breathing on that floor right in front of me."

"I am so sorry you had to go through all of this I never wanted to put you through something like this."

"No don't you dare do that, none of this is your fault what happened to you was not your fault." He pulled her close to him as she cried. She cried till she was sure she had no tears left. She cried for the torture they both suffered, the pain she still had to endure and the lasting trauma she carried with her.

Once her tears had subsided Aaron pulled her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed and wiped the reaming tears from her cheeks. He gave her a passion filled kiss and then proceeded to lay down next to her. Without a word he took off his shirt and laid on his back. Emily proceeded to run her fingers over his scars tracing them back and forth.

Neither of them said a word, they didn't need to, all the words had already been said, now was the time to reinforce their bond and love for each other. Emily moved to kiss each scar even though the position caused her some pain she didn't care.

It was sensual and calming to both of them especially to Aaron, this was the final part of him that he had never shared with another person, it was almost cleansing to share it with her. When she was done Emily laid back down with her head on his chest.

He fell asleep shortly after and it was her turn to watch him sleep, all the stress left his face and she wished in vain that there was some way that she could bring him such peace when he was awake. She continued to run her fingers over his scars until she too was taken over by sleep.

A/N I really wanted to have this up days ago and I am really sorry it had taken this long. The next few chapters should be up sooner I promise. Thank you so much for continuing to read and I hope you continue to enjoy the story and as always thank you so much for the reviews.


	21. JackJack

Jack- Jack

They were both up bright and early the next morning and to Emily's delight there was no awkwardness between that after last night's conversations.

"Good morning"

Good morning" He answered back. "I guess I don't have to wake you up and anger your alarm clock."

She laughed "I choose you over my alarm clock any day."

"Hungry?" He asked with a smile, he found that he smile a lot when he was around her.

"Famished" she answered back with a smile to match his.

"Good" He said getting out of bed and leaving the bedroom. He returned almost ten minutes later to serve her breakfast in bed once more.

On the tray was the previously promised toast and apple sauce, he had butter and grape jelly for her to put on the toast as well. There was also another glass of orange juice, she smiled when she saw that tray.

"You are going to spoil me, breakfast in bed, waiting on me, letting me cry on your shoulder."

"Well if that is all it takes to spoil you, then you are right I am going to spoil you every day." He said with a kiss to her nose.

She laughed and then began eating with a gusto he hasn't seen in a long time. This made him smile, it meant she was getting better; she was too busy eating to even talk to him. He just continued to smile while drinking his coffee. He was glad she hadn't asked to have a cup, he hasn't letting her have coffee till it was time for her to go back to work whether she liked it or not. When she finished everything on the tray, Hotch took it away, when he returned he could see she now had a serious look on her face.

"Let's get this over with, I am not happy we have to clean these damn cuts so let's just do it. Though first I want to wash off then clean the cuts it makes more sense to do it that way." She said, determination dripping from her voice.

"Okay let's do it," while he didn't like the idea that he was going to be causing her more pain he wore a huge smile on the inside. This was more like the Emily Prentiss he knew, that Emily tackled the hard stuff head on and that Emily was rarely controlled by her fears. To him this was a very positive sign that she was healing.

In the bathroom he helped her get undressed. As a result of the deep cuts on her shoulders she was unable to lift her arms above her head. This frustrated Emily greatly, she felt like a child being dressed by her parents. Yet there was no other person she would rather have undressing her than Aaron Hotchner. She stepped in the bathtub and this time because he didn't have to worry as much about her cuts he was able to do a much more thorough and faster job cleaning her off.

It may have just been his imagination or wishful thinking on his part, but her bruises looked as though they were beginning to fade. Regardless of her cuts and bruises he still found her to be a thoroughly beautiful woman and he felt so overjoyed knowing she was his to love.

Once he was done washing her off he made quick work with the alcohol. He heard her hiss every time he poured the sterilizing liquid on to a cut, but she didn't scream this time which he took as a good sign.

It still burned but it was nowhere near the intensity of the previous day. Emily knew this meant her cuts where healing this was a good sign and meant it would hurt even less tomorrow which was a very happy thought. She was still glad when it was over, the antibiotic ointment felt cool against her recently agitated skin.

As he helped her into some clean clothes she actually felt fairly clean and that was a very nice thing. As they moved back to the bedroom she made a request.

"Aaron could I have a popsicle?"

He couldn't help but busting out laughing the moment she said it. "Sorry I didn't mean to laugh, what flavor would you like?"

"Cherry and just for that you get to spend the day watching sex and the city with me." He laughed even harder as he left the bedroom.

He returned with two cherry popsicles, his laptop and all of her sex and the city dvds.

"Here is your lollipop little girl." He said making a reference to yesterday cleaning experience.

"You think you are so funny but I see you have a popsicle of your own."

"It's warm today a popsicle sounded like a refreshing treat." he said weakly

"Right, I think there is a little kid hiding under that calm exterior." She said with a teasing smile and then she seductively licked her red popsicle.

He just smiled ignoring her teasing. "Are we starting from the beginning?"

"Yes" she said with a grin.

He dutifully put the dvd in and sat down next to her and proceeded to check his email.

She looked over at his laptop longingly.

"No" he said before she could even ask.

"Why? Please, do you know how long it has been since I checked my email and I am not talking about my work email?"

"So you want to watch Sex and the City and take my computer away from me too?"

"Please" she pouted.

"Fine but when this episode is over you have to give it back, deal?" He found it hard to resist her cute little pout when the issue wasn't a serious one.

"Deal" she smiled with joy as he gently placed the computer of her lap.

She spent the next twenty minutes sorting through her backlogged email though most of them were not important, they were junk email informing her of an upcoming sale, not that she would be shopping anytime soon. She checked up on current events only to find that not much was new going on in the world. Reluctantly once the episode was over she handed him back his computer.

"Anything important?" He asked, he noticed that her smile from earlier had faded.

"Nothing at all important, just a bunch of emails from people asking if I was alright and wondering how I am doing. I should email them back but I just don't feel up to it right now."

"That's fine people will understand, especially if they are your friends."

"Apparently my abduction really was all over the news, people I haven't talked to in ten years managed to email and ask if I was okay."

"I suppose that is one way to reconnect with old friends."

"I wouldn't recommend it."

"Well I think if you haven't talk to these people in ten years you can take all the time you want to get back to them."

"You're right I don't know what it is but I am so use to privacy and anonymity and I feel weird everyone knowing what happened. I think it comes from being the daughter of a US Ambassador there were always people around and I hated it."

"Then pretend it wasn't all over the news, pretending what happened is not a good idea but I think it is okay to ignore all the people coming out of the woodwork. It is just the two of us forget that people know that you were abducted, it's over those people will more on."

"That sounds good to me." She said with a sigh

"Now we should talk about something more important. I have to go pick Jack up in a few hours."

"Is he going to be okay with me staying with you?" Emily bit her lip a little, she was concerned that Jack would be upset that she was staying at his house.

"Emily he loves you, he is always asking me when you are coming over. He is going to be so excited that you are here. My only concern is if you will be okay when he gets here. I know it has been just the two of us." He really didn't know how to finish his statement.

"I'll be fine don't worry, I just hope Jack understands why I can't play cars with him for a while. I don't want him to think I don't want to play with him anymore."

"I don't worry about it I will explain everything to him, within reason, I will simplify things for him but I will make sure he understands."

"Good, you two are my special guys; I hope its okay for me to say?"

"Well I am speaking for Jack which is always dangerous" he said with a laugh. "But _speaking_ for both of us you are pretty special to us too." Her heart swelled with his comment and she couldn't help but give him a giant kiss, which turned into another mini make out session and ended for the same reason as the previous one. They spent the rest of the afternoon cuddling in bed watching TV. After a while she turned to him and without introduction she asked him a burning question.

"You aren't going to go all cave man on me when we get back to work and try to keep me back at the station and out of harm's way are you?"

"Let me clarify something before I say the wrong thing and you use it against me in a month. You are talking after the doctor clears you, when all your broken bones are healed, all the cuts have healed and any physical therapy is completed correct? Because I was pretty sure that I made it clear that you will only do the work that the doctors have cleared you for, same goes for every member of the team you understand that. I will not send an unfit agent into the field. You just happen to be in the unique position of living with be so I know exactly how you are doing, it is easier for other members of the team to hide how they are really doing, you can't do that." He said with a smirk.

"Yes that is what I was talking about, once I can run and carry a gun you are not going to be over protective?"

"No, I fell in love with a strong independent agent and I would never strip you of that no matter how much I want to keep you safe, it makes you the person you are. Will I worry? Of course but I always worry especially about you, but that comes with being a leader."

"That's good because I would have hated to kick your ass."

"That's why a doctor will decide when you are ready to go back to work again, that way you can't get mad at me. I know how this works if I'm not careful I will end up sleeping on the couch, nope a doctor gets to decide and I get to stay out of trouble."

"That's what you think." She said with a giant smile on her face and then turned back to the TV, as his smile faded a little but he thought it best to let the comment slide for now.

When the time came for Hotch to leave to go get Jack, Emily decided that she wanted to move out to the couch and read a book while he was gone. It was then that she discovered that Aaron had brought all her favorite books back with him. That earned him another long kiss before he left.

A little less than an hour later Aaron stood outside his apartment with Jack next to him.

"Okay buddy remember what we talked about in the car, Emily was hurt really badly by a mean man so you have to remember to be very careful around her, we don't want to accidentally hurt her. And she won't be able to play with you like she did before okay?" Aaron had stopped his son at the door to their apartment, he needed to make sure Jack understood what had happened to the woman inside.

"I remember Daddy, but she can still read me stories right?" He looked up at his father with big pleading eyes and Hotch couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes, but you can't sit on her lap for a while."

"Okay'

Hotch opened the door and Jack ran in looking for Emily

"EMILY" he yelled at the top of his little lungs.

"I'm right here Jack-Jack no need to yell."

Jack went running to where Emily was lying on the couch but he stopped right in front of her.

"Daddy said you got hurt by a bad man." He said with big wide eyes.

"I did but thanks to your Daddy I am getting better." She smiled hoping to convey to him that she was okay and that nothing was going to happen to her.

"He hurt your arm?" Jack said pointing to her cast.

"Yes he did." She said trying to keep the reassuring smile on her face.

"How long do you have to have that on?"

"About six weeks then my arm should be all better."

"Daddy said that you are going to stay with us while you get better."

"I am, is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, are you going to go back to your home once you are better cause I want you to stay longer, I like it when you are here and so does daddy, don't you daddy?"

"I do like it when Emily is here with us."

"Then why can't she stay with us forever?" He asked with the largest puppy dog eyes Emily had ever seen. She looked up at Aaron; they hadn't talked about telling jack about their new relationship.

Aaron wanted to tell Jack but he had no idea exactly how to tell him he was now in a relationship with Emily, how do you explain something so complex to a four year old. All he could do was give Emily a questioning look.

Emily decided she was going to have to take the lead.

"What if I did stay forever would you be okay with that?"

"Yeah" Jack yelled with joy then he stood there with a very serious look on his face like he was thinking about something very hard. "Would that mean you and daddy would get married?"

"Maybe someday but not for a while, but I do love you and daddy very much and I would really like to spend a lot more time with both of you if that's okay." Emily answered calmly, she could see Aaron was about to start to laugh and she forced herself to ignore him, one of them had to remain serious.

"My friend Ben at school his Dad got married and they moved to big house with an awesome pool. If you get married can we do that?"

Hotch laughed out loud this time, kids sure had their priorities set even at the age of four. "Maybe buddy but would you be okay if Emily was my girlfriend? Do you understand what that means?"

"Yeah Emily should be your girlfriend she makes you laugh. Sarah at school wanted to be my girlfriend but she licked my arm and it was yucky so I said no."

"Well I promise not to lick Daddy's arm but is it okay if I kiss him?" She said biting back a laugh of her own.

"I guess so but that is yucky too. I still think we should get a big house with a pool."

"In a few weeks you get to start camp and they had a pool there, will that do for a while?" Aaron asked trying to appease the boy.

"I forgot about camp, I guess we can wait on a pool."

"That's good" Hotch said glad they had finally resolved the issue for the time being.

"Emily will you come and watch m T-ball games with Daddy if you live with us?"

"Of course I will." She said tickling him.

"Once she gets better" Aaron added he was not going to let the two of them gang up on him, so he made it clear she would not be doing anything until she was better.

"Yay! Can I go play in my room?" Jack asked once Emily released him.

"Of course you can." Jack started to run away and then back to his Dad. "Daddy will you come help me with something in a couple minutes?"

"You bet buddy." Aaron answered as Jack ran off once again.

"That went well, you were a big help by the way." She said poking him.

"I learned several months ago that you are much better at dealing with the tough questions."

"Lucky me, he took it quite well had his priorities straight, he wants a pool."

"Well wouldn't you? At least it isn't a puppy." Hotch leaned down and kissed her, Jack choice that moment to run back into the room.

"Daddy" Jack called. Both Aaron and Emily stopped kissing and immediately separated, turned quickly to look at Jack."

"Yeah buddy" he said a little wearily.

"When Ben's Daddy got married again he also got a baby sister can we get one of those too?"

The two adults blushed at Jack's new question and Aaron started coughing a little.

"We'll see kiddo" he said "Babies take a lot longer to make than houses do.

"Daddy"

"Yes Jack." Hotch asked very tentatively, though after a baby what could Jack really ask for that would have been more complicated.

"Do you like kissing Emily?"

"I do"

"Then I guess it isn't so yucky." With that he ran back to his room.

"A pool and a baby Ben's Dad was really busy." Emily said with a laugh.

"I think I should make sure Ben didn't get anything else when his Dad got married. Also I don't think Jack understands what a baby really involves I'm not sure he is that good at sharing yet."

"No but he thinks he wants one."

Aaron was about to ask her if she wanted one but before he could Jack yelled from his room.

"Daddy will you help me?"

"I'm coming" he yelled "We will talk about this later." He said to Emily kissing her on the forehead he then exited the living room to help his son. Laughing to herself Emily returned to the book she had been reading.

A half an hour later Jack came running out of his room carrying a piece of paper with him. He ran up to Emily thrusting the paper at her, it said 'Get Better Soon Love Daddy and Jack' written in Aaron's hand writing. Around it were what Emily believed to be flowers and a rainbow.

"Aw Jack-Jack thank you so much this is so pretty. Would you like to stick it on the fridge so I can look at it every day?"

"Yeah" he yelled with joy, taking the paper from her he ran to the fridge.

Emily smiled at Aaron "That was so sweet"

"He wants you to get better so you can play with him and so you can come see him play T-ball" he whispered back to her.

"He is just about the cutest kid in the world."

Hotch smiled, it made him so happy to see the way Emily and Jack interacted.

"I think it is time to make dinner, how does Mac and Cheese sound?" Aaron yelled to Jack "would you like to help me?"

"Yeah" Jack yelled.

"Maybe I will even let you have a little." He whispered to Emily

"Promises, promises"

Aaron and Jack disappeared into the kitchen and left Emily to read once more. Dinner was a very light hearted, Hotch and Jack had Mac and cheese with a salad. As promised Emily had a small bowl of the cheesy pasta along with peanut butter toast and apple sauce. After dinner they all moved into the living room and watched Toy Story until it was time for Jack to go to bed. He insisted on giving Emily a goodnight kiss which delighted her.

While Aaron was reading Jack a bedtime story Emily moved into the bedroom which was where he found her once Jack was asleep. She was relaxing on the bed and watching an episode of Sex and the City.

"I see you are watching this without me."

"I didn't think you would mind."

"You are so very correct I don't mind at all." He sat down on the bed beside her and grabbed the remote. "Do you mind if we turn this off for a little while I want to talk to you about a few things?" He asked turning the dvd and the TV off.

"Okay" she said with a little trepidation "That is not really the best way to start a conversation you know."

"Yeah sorry that may have come out a bit more dramatic than I had planned."

"I think that might be a first for you" she teased.

"I will try not make habit of it. Though seriously I have to go into work tomorrow, I wanted to at least get the day off but I have to go in and deal with everything that happened in Connecticut. I am hoping that I will be able to make it a half day. We are off rotation for the next week so I will be able to take half days for the rest of the week as well."

"I will be okay Aaron I am not a child I can take care of myself for a while, I am still sleeping a lot, I am not eating much and I am certainly not going to be leaving the apartment on my own." She said trying to reassure him of her safety.

"I worry that you will need something and you won't be able to get it or the antibiotics could cause you to pass out or something."

"I can get the basic things I need on my own and the antibiotics haven't done anything but upset my stomach, I haven't even thrown up. I will be okay on my own for a few hours."

"I know, its just that I promised to take care of you and I feel like I am not doing that when I leave you alone."

"You have done a great job taking care of me, nothing is going to happen if you go into work, I promise you everything will be fine. I will watch TV and read a book and there is plenty of food in the fridge, don't worry you can even call every few hours to see how I am doing if it makes you feel better."

"I guess I can do that." He conceded.

"I can't imagine what you are going to be like when you have to go on a case and leave me behind." She meant it as a joke but the thought of him leaving her behind forced the air out of her lungs and a little panic invaded her mind. She took a few deep breaths to calm down and hopefully cover her moment of panic from Hotch.

"Well that will be at least a week from now you will be healed a little bit more, you will be ready to kick me out by then I am sure. Are you sure you are okay with this you have gone a little pale?"

"No I am fine everything is going to be fine, it was just the thought of you going away on a case I started to panic I am okay with you being gone for hours but being alone at night I don't think I am ready for that."

"I expected that, which is why I took us off rotation for a week, I didn't want to leave you for a long period of time. If you want you can go stay with Garcia when we do eventually get called out that way you don't have to be alone even then."

"I will think about that and we'll see how I am feeling, but you are probably right I will be ready once you finally have to go away."

"You will call me tomorrow if you need anything or if something goes wrong and if you can't get a hold of me for some reason call Dave or JJ they will know where to find me right away or they can help you."

"Aaron I know what to do and I will call if anything happens but really it will be okay."

"You're right, sorry." He said giving her a quick kiss. "I wanted to ask you something if that's okay?"

"A little ominous but ask away."

"I am not sure how to ask so I will just say it. You are great with kids, Jack, the victims we deal with, you'll forgive me for being blunt but everyone knows that you want a child why haven't you had one."

His question took her a more than a little by surprise, there were several different pieces of information she could give him to answer that question starting with the problem she got into when she was fifteen. She took a minute to get her thoughts and emotions under control.

"You're right I really do want a baby it was my only other regret when I thought I was going to die. As for why I don't have one, I guess it would be a combination of being a romantic and spending too much time getting this job. I really wanted to join the BAU and I spent a long time trying to get here and there was never a lot of time left for relationships, call me old fashion but I want to have a baby with someone I love who can help me raise a child in a loving nurturing environment. But now I have you and Jack and I know he isn't mine and I would never try to replace his mother but I can't begin to thank you for letting me spent time with him and being a part of his life."

"Let's have a baby."

"What? Whoa slow down there, I see I am going to be the voice of reason around her for a while. I love the relationship we started and I know some people would say we are moving too fast, I am practically living with you. But we have know each other for a long time and I don't think what we are doing is moving too fast, but even I think that is too soon to try and have a baby" She was taken completely by surprised by his suggestion it was unlike him and no matter how much she wanted a baby she wasn't going to rush into this.

He laughed "I didn't mean right now, you won't be up for those activates for a least a month. I was thinking of maybe in six or nine months from now, once you have had time to heal and deal with what happened. If we haven't driven each other crazy by that point then I think we should try and have a baby."

"See now that makes a lot more sense and sounds like the Aaron Hotchner I know and love or at least the one I am use to. A little spontaneity wouldn't kill you but babies aren't meant to be spontaneous." She was still a little surprised that he had brought up the subject of having a baby but she was very happy that he did because there was no one she wanted to have a baby with except Aaron Hotchner.

"So you like the idea?"

"I love the idea and I love you. It could take a while to conceive we're not exactly teenagers anymore you know."

"I hear trying to have a baby can be a lot of fun"

"I've heard that too and I guess in six to nine months we'll see if what they say is true, but until then I hear practicing can be fun too."

"Oh it can, be too bad we have to wait for that too." He said with a little frown

"Well my lips are perfectly fine maybe we could start by practicing there."

"That sounds like a great idea." He said capturing her lips in his. The two spent the rest of the night making out like teenagers and enjoying every moment.

A/N I thought it was about time to bring Jack into the story, I hope everyone had a great weekend and I hope you enjoy the chapter thank you for reading and extra thank for the reviews!


	22. A Visit From MOM

A Visit from Mom

The following week was free from any real problems or issues, which was a welcome reprieve. Emily had no trouble staying by herself while Aaron went into work. She could not hold back the 'I told you so' when he returned home on Monday. And as she predicted, she slept most of the time he was gone. Though throughout the week she did call him when she woke up around ten, just to check in and so they both knew the other was doing fine. Neither would admit it but they both really enjoyed those short phone calls.

Aaron also refused to tell her exactly what happened on Monday when he went to deal with her abduction and their relationship. All he would say was that he talked to Strauss and the director and everything was fine. She was now officially on leave till the doctor told her she was fit to return, and everyone passed on their hopes that she would recover quickly and return to work soon. No matter how hard she tried he wouldn't tell her any more.

Emily's mother was stopping by some time Saturday afternoon most likely around three. Though when Saturday arrived Emily found that she was a little nervous to see her mother. Emily really did want to talk to her mom, but as much as she wanted to see her mom Emily just was not sure how the ambassador would react to Her and Aaron's new relationship.

When Elizabeth Prentiss showed up at his door Saturday afternoon Aaron gave her a polite and warm welcome introduced her to Jack and then left the apartment to take his young son to the park. He wanted to give Emily and her mother some privacy to talk and he didn't want Jack to hear Emily discuss what had happened to her.

Emily slowly stood as her mother came closer, she could tell that her mother was assessing the situation with Aaron and taking in Emily's visible injuries. Then Elizabeth Prentiss quickly covered the distance between the two of them and enveloped her daughter in a hug.

"Oh Emily are you okay?" she asked.

"I don't know, better than I was, but everything still hurts and I have nightmares that wake me up every night." She answered honestly with tears in her eyes. Emily stood there soaking up the warmth in her mother's arms for a long time before she finally let go and they both sat down on the couch.

As they sat down the tears reused to stop falling, Emily hadn't planned to break down in front of her mother but that was exactly what happened. Elizabeth pulled her daughter into her arms so that Emily's head was resting in her lap. The older woman slowly stroked her daughter's raven hair as she cried. After a while Emily slowly got her tears under control but she remained in her mother's arm a little longer, it felt very calming to have her mother stroking her hair. Finally she sat up and wiped the tears from her face.

"Do you want to tell me what happened? There was very little information on the news and Agent Hotchner was reluctant to tell me anything when he called, all he said was that they found you alive." Elizabeth said trying to coax her child into telling her what happened.

"I guess that is a small consolation knowing that the news didn't broadcast everything." Emily said more to herself than her mother. She too a moment before she started.

"Mom before I tell you what happened I need you to know a few things. First" she paused trying to find the right word. "He did some terrible things, he tortured me for three days, and I want to make sure you are prepared to hear this."

"Em I will be fine please don't worry about me." The ambassador said calmly as if it were a daily event they were talking about.

"I just wanted to warn you. There is another thing, the Unsub set up a video link and sent, it to my team he made them watch while he hurt me."

"Okay" the older woman said quizzically, "I am not sure why you are telling me this first."

"Because I know you mother, once I tell you what happened you are going to want to see that tape and I don't want you to see it. I already told Aaron and Garcia that you are not allowed near that tape so don't even ask. Please mom this is what I want, just let me tell you what happened and leave it at that." Emily begged her mother to understand and not press the issue.

"If that is what you want sweetheart I will agree." Elizabeth knew her daughter was right she would want to see that tape, Elizabeth Prentiss didn't hide from the terrible things and she wanted to know exactly what her daughter had been through, but she could see this was important to Emily so she let the topic go.

Emily nodded with a sad smile, she then proceeded to tell her mother what had transpired during her abduction and the torture the Unsub put her through. She didn't really leave parts out except for her message to her friends, which was really only for them. She did try and make the torture she had endured sound more clinical in the hopes that it would spare her mom some pain, though by the end she didn't want to look her mother in the eyes.

"According to the doctor I have three broken ribs and the obvious broken wrist." She said raising her left hand. "Cuts to my arms and legs the deep cut on my right thigh has too many stitches to count. They should be taking them out on Tuesday if everything goes the way it should. To prevent infection I am on harsh antibiotics and some nice pain pills." She finished still not looking at her mother. There was a lengthy pause before Elizabeth began to speak.

"How are you holding up, for real, no psychological bullshit either tell me the truth." She asked forcing Emily to look at her.

"Honestly I don't know I am really tired of being in pain and I cry all the time which is frustrating. I wish it would all just get better and it won't. Plus on top of everything else I am now claustrophobic." She paused for a moment. "But I am starting to heal and I am going to talk to a professional about what happened, I guess things are going okay it is just a slow recovery."

"You can't rush things like this they take time, Emily it will get better eventually." Elizabeth said trying to stress to her daughter the idea that she needed to be patient.

"I know Mom and Aaron keeps saying the same thing, I just wish it didn't take so long." The two were silent once again; Emily knew her mother really wanted to ask her a certain question. "Go ahead Mother ask me."

"I was just curious about your relationship with Agent Hotchner, I couldn't help but notice you called him Aaron which I have never heard you do before." Her mother said trying to be nonchalant she didn't want to start a fight with her daughter especially when she was hurt.

"We're, well I don't know exactly what you would call this, we are together, dating, he's my boyfriend I guess if you want to use those words."

"And you two have been living together?"She asked trying to hide her smile.

"Only since I got hurt, but it would seem silly to go back to my apartment once I have recovered. I like living with him, it may seem like we are rushing things but trust me we're not, I like being with him and Jack." She answered defensively, the last thing she wanted to hear was how this relationship was a bad idea, would be harmful to her career, and only end up hurting her. She was really happy with Aaron and she wasn't going to give it up no matter how much her mother disappeared, but to her surprise that wasn't what happened.

"Honey I am not trying to pick a fight with you, I just want to make sure you are happy, you are a grown woman you can make decisions on your own now. I am only concerned about you being safe, happy, and healthy."

"I am happy, I am so much more than happy, I can't even begin to find the words to tell you." She couldn't contain her giant smile.

"Then I am _happy_ for you, Aaron seems like a wonderful man, I trusted him with our safety many years ago and I trust him to keep you safe now. And he makes your face light up in a way I have never seen before. Not to mention his son is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen."

"Oh Jack is amazing Mom he has a huge capacity for joy and love, even after everything he has been through. I love him as much as I love Aaron." Emily's face beamed with sheer joy as she talked about the little boy and his father.

"This is a new side of you Emily, for so long all I have ever heard about was how much you wanted to join the BAU and become a profiler. And I was so worried you would get hurt but you were determined. And then once you got the job it seemed like work consumed you. I haven't seen you in almost two years. But this is new and a nice change." Her Mother said with a smile.

"Well this part of me has been lurking beneath the surface but a lot of things change when you come so close to dying. By the way I expected to hear an 'I told you so from you'. As I remember you repeatedly warned me not to join the FBI, because it was too dangerous."

"As I recall this was not the first time you have chosen not to listen to me and from what I hear this is certainly not the first time you have been abducted or injured. But you do love this job and you help a lot of people. You made a good choice sweetheart, I am sorry if you ever felt like I didn't support you."

"I always knew that you supported me, even though you didn't always express it, but thank you for saying that I never thought I would actually hear you say it."

"Well it is good to know we can still surprise each other."Her mother said with a smile.

"I am really glad you came over Mom."

"I am glad I came too, I needed to see you, when Agent—Aaron called and told me what happened I wanted to come see you right away and I am sorry I couldn't. I almost lost you, I had to come make sure you were alright."

"Being with you makes things a lot better, sometimes I fear this is the dream and I will wake back in that hell hole."

"It will get better sweetie I promise." Her mother said rubbing her back.

"I know your right." Emily replied.

"If only you had that mentality when you were a teenager things would have been a lot easier." Her mother said with a laugh.

"Some things only come with age I guess." Emily joked back.

"Are you sure you are doing alright, you look pale and you have dark circles under your eyes." Her mother asked with a furrowed browl.

"I am fine, I sleep a lot but the nightmares wake me up every night. I am still eating only basic food, lots of crackers and Sprite, the antibiotics really upset my stomach I don't think I could handle real food yet. Sure you don't want to say I told you so, not even a little." She said, she could see concern written all over her mother's face and she tried to abate it with a joke.

"I would never say I told you so. If I have discovered one thing being a parent it is that my job is to keep you safe from harm and your job is to try and get hurt as often as possible."

Emily burst out laughing, her mother was rarely that candid, and Emily clutched her ribs as she continued to laugh.

"You just proved my point." She said referencing Emily's ribs

"Sorry it was funny and laughing is good even if it hurts."

"Okay laugh, but you just wait and remember what I said, that cute little boy is going to prove me right."

"Oh I don't doubt it." Emily said still laughing, her mother may have been shaking her head but she was laughing too.

It was at that moment Aaron and Jack returned to the apartment bursting through the door.

"I see you two are having fun." Aaron said in a mock stern voice when he saw them laughing.

"We are, how was the park Jack-jack?" she asked as the child ran over toward her.

"I went down the really big slide fifteen times."

"Wow, that's a lot." She responded, finding his facial expression too cute for words.

"And Daddy and me played tag until Daddy hurt his back."

"Are you okay?" She asked the older man who was now reaching into the freezer for an ice pack.

"I will be fine a little ice now and some heat later and I will be back to new." Emily didn't believe him but she wasn't going to challenge him in front of her mom. When Aaron Hotchner was hurt he did what he wanted to do and it was impossible to get him to do anything else, especially when he was in front of other people and he called her stubborn she though. She knew she would just be wasting her breath arguing with him so she left it alone.

"Ambassador Prentiss would like to stay for dinner, Jack and I are having tacos and corn on the cob." He could see that Elizabeth Prentiss' visit with her daughter was going well and he wanted Emily to get to spend as much time with her mom as she could.

"I am having Tomato Soup, apple sauce, and Jello." Emily added with a less enthusiastic voice. "You are welcome to join us." She said smiling at her mother.

"Emily can I have some of your Jello?" Jack interrupted.

"Of course you can." She said tickling him.

"Thank you for the invitation but I have a business dinner that unfortunately I can't cancel…again." Her mother said answering Aaron's question, she smiled because she had to admit the three of them made one very cute family. "Maybe some other time?" She ask sincerely

"Defiantly" Emily said and Aaron nodded agreement.

"I should be going now if I want to get there on time. Emily sweetheart relax, get some rest and you will get better, listen to your doctor and Agent—Aaron. I will give you a call early next week okay?" Emily nodded.

"Aaron good to see you again and Jack it was a pleasure meeting you." She smiled at Jack and Aaron and then gave her daughter a very long hug. "Goodbye honey I love you." She said quietly as they hugged.

"Bye mom, love you too." She said with a slightly sad smile.

Elizabeth on the other hand gave her daughter a big smile with a peculiar twinkle in her eye, she continued to smile as she looked between the three other people in the room; she then let herself out of the apartment with a final goodbye.

Jack now free from Emily's tickles ran to his room to play, their visitor was gone and his room now provided more entertainment.

"Uh-oh" Emily said as Aaron walked over and kissed her on the forehead.

"What" he asked pulling back.

"I know that face, that is my Mother's look of pure joy at the prospect of getting to plan a giant party."

"What does that mean?" He said confused.

"It means your son and my mother are going to end up pushing us down the aisle as quickly as they can."

"That only because Jack wants a pool."

"And my mother wants grandchildren, that doesn't make a difference."

He just laughed and gave her another kiss and walked to the kitchen to make dinner.

"How is your back, the truth this time?"

"It is fine really, some ice and heat will fix it." He answered sticking with his original statement.

Yeah he was stubborn alright she though as she watch him begin making dinner.

"How was the visit with your mom?" He asked as he began to make dinner.

"Good, better than I thought, she didn't fight me on the video and she didn't have a problem with the two of us dating. I think it had more to do with the visions of grandchildren dancing in her head." She paused for a minute and then finally continued to talk. "I cried again Aaron, the moment she gave me a hug I broke down. I really have to get this crying under control or I am likely to freak out Morgan and scar Reid." She tried making a joke of the whole thing in an attempt to make herself feel better.

"Give it time, crying is part of healing, and I am sure your mother didn't mind. It is okay to cry, crying is not going to scar Reid and Morgan will deal with it." He ended his statement with a laugh he couldn't help but wonder how Morgan would deal with a crying woman."

"Well I am sure he has had some practice given the way he dates women I am sure he breaks a lot of the lady's heart." She said with a laugh.

"I am glad you had a good visit with your mother." He said getting them back on the important topic.

"Me too, I think it was exactly what I needed. I _needed_ to see her after what happened, it was the last part of proving to myself that I am still alive. And it was nice to see her. For some reason I never thought I would witness her becoming one of those mothers who bugs her children about getting married and when she is going to get some grandchildren. But I could tell that was what she wanted to ask, after I told her what happened that is. I thought she would have hated the idea of me dating you but it was just the opposite, I think would love to plan a wedding right now. This is completely different side to my mother, I think I like it."

"Well I am glad she was happy about us, it makes it a lot easier to do this all the time." He exited the kitchen and walked back to the couch and then proceeded to kiss her. He too was glad the ambassador was in favor of their relationship, Emily didn't need any more problems to deal with right now.

"Mmm that was nice."

"Yes it was now backing to food. You look a little tired, you did miss your afternoon nap maybe you should sleep while I make dinner."

"I think that is a very good idea." She said with a yawn as she snuggled into the couch. After a few minutes she was fast asleep. Aaron just smiled as he kissed her on the forehead. He was happy that her afternoon went so well, Emily deserved happiness after everything that had happened to her at the hands of George Grant, and he was still determined to make sure she got her happily ever after.

A/N Again I really apologize for taking so long to update I took the last week and finished the story there are two more chapters left and they will up this week, I also spent a lot of time tweaking this chapter and I still don't think it is as good as I would like so I am sorry about that as well. I am very sad and angry about the cast changes that CBS wants to do with Criminal Minds I am sure it is clear that Emily is my favorite character and I think Paget Brewster is an amazing actress and I want her in every episode this is not right and I hope that CBS had a huge change of heart. Thank you everyone for reading and extra thanks for the reviews I hope you have a great week.


	23. Fight Night

Fight Night

Emily would have been the first to admit that the past month had done anything but fly by. Yet it felt like so much had changed between her and Aaron Hotchner in such a short period of time. The apartment now had a domestic feel; it was their protected haven secluded from the outside world. The only place they could be a happy little family. This was partly because it was one of the few places Emily had been to during the last month.

As Emily told her mom, on Tuesday her doctor removed the stitches in her leg. He also checked out all her other cuts, bruises and broken bones and declared that they were healing nicely and there was no sign of infection. This made Emily exceedingly happy because it meant that she no longer had to take the horrible antibiotics that upset her stomach. And to her everlasting delight the doctor told her she could do slightly more physical activities including short walks.

Aaron on the other hand was less than please at the doctor's liberating decree, it marked the return of a slightly more stubborn Emily. She was felling a lot better now that she was no longer taking the antibiotics that had wrecked havoc on her system. That meant she now wanted to do a lot more things and eat all types of bad food. She still couldn't lift her arms above her head which still prevented her from doing many activities, and this frustrated her greatly.

With the stitches removed Emily was now free to take a shower and Aaron gladly joined her, she quickly came to the conclusion that JJ was wrong about showering with another person. When you had a handsome man washing and massaging your hair, couples showing became pretty romantic, though most romantic activities were still on the doctor's no-no list.

As a result of the doctors decision Emily was quite eager to get out of the apartment, as a compromise and to help abate her cabin fever Hotch agreed to let her go on short walks but only when he was home to go with her. She was also allowed to go with him and Jack to the park but only if she promise to spend the trip relaxing on the picnic blanket and watching the Hotchner men play. While she wasn't thrilled with the restrictions he placed on her, she knew they were all she was really up for at the moment and it was better than being stuck inside all the time.

Yet Emily still found that she was very frustrated by the limitations her body was placing on her. Even doing most of the basic tasks like showering or going on short walks took a great deal of energy out of her. She was desperate to get out and start living her life, she wanted to move past what had happened to her and she was having trouble doing that sitting inside. The only good part was that she got to spend a lot of time with Aaron.

By the time her stitches came out the only part of her that still hurt all the time were her ribs and during the day Advil was usually enough to subdue the pain. Her healing cuts usually only hurt when she moved the wrong way. Her muscles on the other hand were taking a lot longer to heal, leaving her still physically unable to do many thing. Still she limited the use of the real drugs to the night. Her cuts and the skin under her cast had started to itch like crazy though and it took all of her self control to keep from scratching the wounds open.

A few days after Emily's stitches were removed Aaron and the BAU team got called off to a case in Phoenix Arizona. Emily wasn't exactly thrilled that he had to leave but she knew the team couldn't stay in Virginia until she was ready to go back to work. Emily had decided to stay in the apartment by herself while Aaron was gone, she didn't think it was necessary to head over to Garcia for just a few night.

The first day he was gone went well and though she missed eating dinner with Aaron and Jack she was able to fill her evening with a DVD marathon. Night time was a completely different story. It took Emily far longer to fall asleep than it usually did. She kept tossing and turning trying to find that elusive comfortable position. Thing were far from better once she fell asleep either.

_She was back in the concrete cell, and before she could react to her surroundings George Grant's face came into view. She was lying on the bed and he was standing over her. Before she could react he grabbed her by the throat and began stabbing her in the arms and legs. He then dropped the knife and hit her so hard right across the face, she blacked out. The next thing she knew he was placing her in the glass coffin and she watched as he sealed her in. The air instantly left the small space and she couldn't breathe, she started to struggle and pounded on the glass gasping for air. She could see Grant smile as she struggled. She was consumed by panic and fear, desperate to escape from the box and Grant._

Emily bolted straight up in bed fighting to breath and drenched in sweat. The images from her nightmare were so real, she was terrified that Grant would be standing in front of her.

She tried to regulate her breathing and in an attempt to calm herself down she turned on the lights and the TV. She began to flip through the channels in search of something to take her mind off her nightmare but she couldn't find anything good. Eventually she stopped on the history channel which was replaying some World War II documentary.

Emily tried in vain to watch the TV for a good half an hour attempting to calm herself enough to go back to bed, but it wasn't working. No matter how hard she tried she could not get the feel of dread to go away. She finally gave up and turned the TV off. She got out of bed and began pacing around the apartment.

This had exact opposite effect that she was hoping for. Instead of relaxing her it only proceeded to stress her out further and she managed to work herself into a panic. Soon she began to sob as she wrapped her arms around herself.

The images of her dream may have faded but the fear wouldn't leave, she was scared to death for no real reason and she couldn't make it go away. She had been having nightmares every night since she got home but they had never reached this level. Aaron was always there to take her in his arms and make her feel safe. In the back of her mind it clicked, he wasn't there to make her feel safe and without him she was scared that Grant would hurt her again, the fact that the man was dead provided little comfort at that moment.

She knew that Aaron always found a way to calm her down after her nightmares but she didn't realize until now that he also made her feel safe. She didn't even know she felt unsafe after he nightmares until he was no longer there. He was immediately there to take care of her, there wasn't even time for her to feel unsafe.

She raced to the bedroom and desperately hit the speed dial button for Aaron on her cell phone. When she first woke up she had dismissed the idea of calling him, she knew he was busy with the case and she didn't want to bother him plus she had felt confident that she could deal with the nightmare on her own. Once the panic set in she had completely forgotten that she could call him.

Thankfully he picked up the phone on the third ring because she wasn't sure what she would have done if he hadn't.

"Hey what are you doing up so late?" He asked in a pleasant voice.

"Aaron" she sobbed.

"Emily what's wrong?" He asked concerned filled his voice, through this whole ordeal she had never once called him upset or in tears.

"I had a nightmare, I think I am having a panic attack, I am sorry for bothering you I know you are working." She said through her tears.

"You can all me whenever you need to sweetheart. We just got back to the hotel actually so I am all yours for the rest of the night. It will be okay I promise. Is it the same nightmare?" He said in a soothing voice hoping that his calm demeanor would help calm her down.

"Yes, I am back in the room and he is hurting me and then I am awake while he is sealing me in the glass box and I can't breathe. I thought I would be okay if I watched TV but it didn't help it just kept getting worse." The words poured out of her mouth very quickly.

"Em how long have you been up?" He asked, worried that she had been up for hours trying to deal with this on her own.

"Over an hour I think" she said meekly.

An hour was not as long as he feared but it was longer than he wanted her to be upset.

"Aw sweetheart you should have called me sooner, we will fix this okay?"

"I am so scared Aaron, I don't even know what I am scared of I just know I am scared and afraid without you. I should have stayed with Garcia. But I wanted to sleep in the bed we have been sharing and I thought I could so this on my own."

"Garcia just headed home ten minutes ago which means she wouldn't have been there to help, I think you made the right choice to stay in the apartment, even after this. I think you are more comfortable where you are in our bed and you can do this.

"Remember Emily this is your first night alone since you were abducted, give yourself some slack you are being much too hard on yourself. And you never have to do this on your own, I told you I would always be there to help you. Now just take some deep breaths, you are going to make yourself sick panicking this way. Can you do that for me?"

The whole time he was talking her could hear her crying. He wanted nothing more than to be able to hold her and stop the tears but he was hundreds of miles away. He hoped he was talented enough to calm her down with just his voice, if not this had the possibility of being a very long night.

"Okay" she said in a shaky voice.

"Good, now head into the bedroom, turn off all the lights except for the light on my night stand." Every night when he would help her go back to sleep after her nightmare he would leave just his light on he was praying the same environment would help her feel safe even though he wasn't there to hold her. "Lay down and close your eyes, focus on breathing and listen to my voice, we are just going to talk not about anything important just talk."

"I can't do that, the bed feels so empty without you."

"Take one of my pillows and lay it next to you, it should help." It was an old trick he had learned long ago when he started spending nights away from Haley. After the divorce he got use to always sleeping by himself and found he no longer he needed to do it. But tonight as he talked to Emily he realized the bed he was sleeping in felt empty as well. He followed his own suggestion and moved a pillowed to the spot she normally slept in, he smiled at the thought that he had grown accustom to sleeping with her.

"It was over 100 degrees today no one wanted to go outside. I think we should be done in two days." He said trying to come up with some small talk.

"That's good" She said softly though it did sound like she had stopped crying.

"It is very good, it means I will be home in time to see Jack's T-Ball game on Saturday and I was thinking that if you are feeling up to it that you might like to go with us?"

"Really you are going to let me go?" She practically yelled with excitement.

"Yeah I think you can handle sitting in the stands for a few hours." He said only half joking.

"Yes, I can't wait to see Jack play." She was noticeably happier and her fear seemed to have disappeared for the time being, for which he was glad, it was the exact reaction he was hoping for when he brought up the subject.

"He can't wait for you to come either, he asks me all the time if you are better so that you can come."

"Did you get a chance to talk to him today?"

"I did, he was tie dying at camp today in arts and crafts and his team won their game of kick ball so he was all excited."

"He loves camp, he is so cute when he talks about it, and he gets so animated."

"For a four year old he is a pretty good story teller."

"You know he would say that he isn't four he is four and three quarters."

"Very true he would, he misses you a lot too he asked if you were going to call him."

"Aw that is really sweet, I didn't know if calling him would be over stepping some invisible boundary, I wasn't if it was okay for me to call or if he would even want me to."

"Of course you can call him, he really wants you to call, Jessica isn't going to mind, if that's what you're worried about and I certainly have no problem with it. I like to think you are part of our family now, I know that may be a little forward but it is how I feel." He got a bit nervous, he still wasn't use to just blurting out how he was feeling even to her.

"I like to consider myself part of your family but I was afraid of being too presumptuous and I was a little worried about what Jess would think, I don't want to upset anyone."

"Well you can stop worrying, Jack wants you to call him and frankly that is all that matters." He was very glad that she felt the same way he did, it was something that continued to surprise him every time it happened.

"I will call him tomorrow when he gets home from camp." She said with a smile.

"He will be thrilled, I am too by the way." Unknowingly he had a giant smile to match her own. He wanted them to be a family but that wasn't something he could just make happen it took time and it had to happen on its own and he was thrilled that it was happening.

There was a moment of silence and then Emily became serious once more.

"I was in such a state of panic Aaron, I didn't know what to do, I couldn't think straight."

"Next time you have a nightmare while I'm away you call me as soon as you wake up."

"I will, I really need to find a therapist, if I can got to Jack's game I can start going to an office and sit for an hour on an oversize couch."

"Sounds like a good idea. Are you feeling better now?"

"I am, do you need me to let you go so you can sleep?" She asked, a little bit of fear had returned to her voice, she wasn't ready to be alone just yet.

"No I am sticking around till you fall asleep; I am three hours behind you so stop worrying about me."

"Thank you" she said with a yawn. "You aren't going to tell me about the case you're working on are you?"

"Not until I am home and the case is over you don't need to worry about this case, I'm not sure we really needed to come but that is a moot point now. The important thing is that you should concentrate on relaxing and recovering and not worrying about everyone else.

"Yes doctor." She murmured.

"Everyone keeps asking how you are doing by the way; JJ, Dave and Garcia ask me daily."

"Tell them I said hi" she said sleepily.

"I will, speaking of Garcia she is planning on coming over for dinner either tomorrow or the next day, she wants to make sure you are eating well. But I wanted to give you a heads up before she popped over and surprised you. "

"Mm-hmm" was her only reply.

"I am thinking of letting Jack get a pet Dragon." He said with a smile, he was pretty sure she was asleep but he wanted to make sure.

"Mm-hmm"

"And in the fall I am going to send him to that Wizarding school in England." He knew she was asleep now but he couldn't help playing with her, which probably meant he had been spending too much time with Morgan.

"Mm-hmm." It was a lot softer this time. He sighed; he hoped that she would be able to make it through the night without another nightmare.

"I love you Emily Prentiss sleep well" He then hung up the phone, she would probably wake up with the phone smushed to her face but both she and the phone would be fine.

The following two nights Emily called Hotch immediately after she woke from her nightmare and he was able to talk her through it and get her back to sleep, but she was glad when he returned the next day.

Time moved a bit faster once she was given some freedom of movement. Soon two more weeks had past and she was finally allowed to return to work on a very limited basis. Just as she had with her mother, Emily found that she was nervous about going back to work. She had talked to her teammates many times while she was recovering but this would be the first time they would all be working together since her abduction. More importantly this would be the first time Emily and Hotch would be working together since the start of their relationship, she had gotten so use to him as Aaron she was worried it would be difficult to go back to a working relationship. To both their delight they had no trouble returning to their working relationship, though every once in a while they did find some personal time at work. Hotch made sure Strauss was never around and the rest of the team pretended not to notice, , they were all secretly delighted in the new relationship between two of their members.

She had been talking to a therapist for almost two weeks when she returned to work a month after her abduction. Emily felt like they were making great progress, she only experienced slight anxiety when being in a crowded room and she did well controlling her panic while in a crowded Elevator. She was still nervous to get on the plane though.

The first time she set foot on the jet went better than she expected there was a minute or two of sheer panic when they closed the doors, but she was able to get it under control and it completely disappeared after she got comfortable. The bathroom on the plane was by far the worst, which came as no surprised because even before she was abducted, she often felt like she was locked in a tiny box when she used the restroom. Therefore it was no surprise that she felt trapped the moment she closed the door. Using some techniques the doctor taught her she was able to do what she needed to do in the small space, but her anxiety didn't go away even after she exited the bathroom. When she came out Aaron knew immediately what was wrong and he discretely rubbed circles on her back to help calm her down. The rest of the team noticed but never said anything.

Her cast was removed after six week but even once it was gone she still was not able to carry a gun. The annoying cuts on her shoulders still prevented her from shooting. It took almost two weeks of physical therapy to get all her limbs in working order. This meant that it took two months for her to get her gun back. That face made Emily beyond frustrated, she was downright grumpy. Luckily Aaron was able to defuse the problem to an extent, her physical therapist gave him permission to take her to the shooting range and that was enough to deal with most of her pent up frustration.

Two months after her abduction the doctor told her she could go out in the field in a limited capacity i.e. she had to keep the running jumping and kicking ass to a very limited amount. Hotch interpreted this to mean she could interview victims and witnesses, go to crime scenes but any interaction with suspects had to wait until they were at the precinct, she was not allowed to go with them when they took down suspects, that was absolutely not allowed. Emily was livid when she heard Hotch's decision, she didn't agree and she let him know it the moment they got home, resulting in a giant fight between the two agents.

"This is not fair and you know it, you promised you wouldn't do this." She yelled at him from the middle of the living room.

"This is exactly what I promised I would do, I am following the doctors instructions Emily." Aaron said trying to stay calm, even though he was angry as well.

"Those were not the doctor's instructions Hotch." She only called him Hotch at home when she was mad at him.

"The Doctor said you had to keep the running jumping and breaking down door to a minimum."

"Yes to minimum, he didn't say I couldn't do it at all." To prove her point she jumped up and down several times right in front of him.

If Aaron had been angry before he was furious now, he quickly moved and pulled her into his arms holding her tight. His movements surprised her, she thought he was hugging her which didn't make sense because they were having a fight and the fire was raging in his eyes.

"Why would you do that, why in HELL would you do that" He seethed quietly in her ear. Immediately she understood what he was doing, he was holding her so she couldn't jump again, she tried to get out of his embrace but he held her firmly in place.

"Let go" she growled

"NO, what you did is something a child would do, Emily your ribs are still healing why would you risk hurting yourself over this?"

"Please let go" she practically whimpered.

"Promise me you won't do something stupid like that again?" She nodded quickly and he released her. It was then that he could see she had tears in her eyes. 'Great' he thought, not only where they fighting now he had made her cry.

"I was trying to prove my point not hurt myself, I would never intentionally hurt myself." She started off quite but she was yelling by the end, tears still trickling down her cheeks.

"You scared me" he shot back.

"That's the problem you are too scared to let me back in the field completely."

"Of course I am scared but that is not why I won't let you back in the field right now. The doctor said to minimize those activities, as in do them sparingly"

"I know and as I said before that doesn't mean I can't go out and help arrest the Unsub."

"But it does, if I send you out there to capture the Unsub you will do everything you are not suppose to do running, jumping, and kicking in doors you are not going to be able to control yourself I know you Emily."

"So what you are saying is that you don't think I have any self control and you don't trust me to watch out for myself."

Aaron knew that he should have cut his loses said something nice to end their fight and then calmly explain his decision when they had cooled down. But those where not the words that came out of his mouth.

"You were just jumping up and down to prove to me that I was wrong, ignoring your doctor's request, what else am I to think." The moment the words left his lips he knew it was a mistake.

"You don't trust me; you think I am going to hurt myself." She seethed to her face now inches away from his.

"Emily that is not what I meant."

"You basically said it twice." She moved away from him and gave him the worst glare he had ever received from her or anyone else. And then to Hotch's true horror everything went monumentally wrong.

"You don't trust me period; well I am glad I found that out now." She said, at that very moment before Aaron could answer Jack and Jessica unknowingly walked right into the middle of a war zone.

They froze instantly, after a moment of looking around and assessing the situation Jessica spoke up. "I think Jack and I are going to go to the park and give you two some space".

"No you don't have to leave we're done; your team, your decision." She said the Hotch. "End of discussion, you three have a good evening I am going out." She then turned and walked into the bedroom.

Aaron knew that by saying 'going out' she really meant "I am going back to my apartment the one I kept in case something like this happened". They had talked about getting rid of her apartment a few weeks and Emily thought it was too soon to give it up, she reasoned that they could end up hating each other by the time she felt better. At the time she had meant it as a joke but there was no joke now. They had argued before but Emily had never even threatened to leave but the moment she said she was going out he knew that was what she was planning to doing.

"Jess you're right I think you should take Jack to the park."

"Daddy did she call you Hotch?" Jack asked before he left.

"Yeah she did buddy"

"Then you are in big trouble." The little boy said with a concerned look on his face.

"I know, go with Aunt Jess to the park everything will be fine." The moment they were gone Aaron rushed to the bedroom where he found Emily throwing clothes into a bag.

"Emily please don't do this." He begged the moment he entered the room.

"You don't trust me why would I stay." She said through her tears.

"That is not what I meant." He desperately wanted to fix the situation he had created.

"That is what you said and I am pretty sure it's what you meant. You don't trust me, that is why you wouldn't let Jack stay with me when you left." She said sobbing as she angrily threw more clothes into the bag she wouldn't even look at him

"Emily please look at me, I didn't mean what I said I am so sorry, please just stop for a minute and talk to me or at least let me explain, you have every right to be upset with me but let me explain, let me fix this please?" He pleaded with her; he didn't want her to leave, not after what he said.

"Fine" she growled throwing down the clothes and glaring at him. "Explain and it better be one damn good explanation Hotch." There was the 'Hotch' again, he knew he had to explain this to her and he only had one shot.

"I trust you so much, I trust you to take care of Jack and me and the whole team and I trust you to take care of yourself. Do you want to know what I don't trust you to?"

"Enlighten me" she shot back with a glare, she had stopped packing to hear what he had to say. He mentally kicked himself this was still not going well.

"When we are taking down an Unsub I don't trust you to not do your job."

"That's a double negative Aaron." She growled. Taking a deep breathe he made a final attempt to explain himself.

"What I am saying is that when we are out there going after serial killers I know you are going to do your job and you are going to do it above and beyond what is expected because that is who you are. That means when you are out there you are going to do whatever it takes to get the Unsub. You are not going to be thinking about the doctor's orders, you will justify your action as necessary and you are going to end up hurting yourself again and end up back on desk duty and you will hate that. That is what I meant and why I told you that you couldn't go back in the field full time."

She moved her clothes and sat on the bed. "You are really good at taking a stupid comment and turning it into a compliment" she said with a few tears.

"Does that mean you are going to stay?" He asked hopefully.

"Yes" She said grabbing a tissue. "But I am not sure I am ready to forgive you."

"I am so sorry I said what I said and I am sorry for the way I said it. You are so good at taking care of others before yourself it is one of your most attractive qualities. I felt that because you take care of everyone else I wanted to make sure someone was taking care of you and I wanted it to be me. I don't mean for that to sound like I am being paternal I just want to look out for you. I feel this is my obligation as your boss not just your boyfriend. I know I would have made the same decision if you weren't my girlfriend. And if you really want to know what I personally thought not as your boss, I thought it would be better to stay behind for two or three weeks so you wouldn't get hurt again and have to sit out longer because I know how much that would upset you and I don't want you upset or unhappy." He was rambling a bit but he wanted her to understand.

"I think you should have remained a prosecutor because you have quite the silver tongue." She said with a smile.

"I meant every work." He said sitting on the bed next to her.

"I know, I am just not use to someone taking care of me in a relationship and I know most of the time at work we are able to separate our relationship, it just felt like you weren't listening to me or the doctor and being over protective. I can see now that you weren't trying to manage me you were just trying to protect me which is part of your job. I'm sorry I got mad."

"I'm sorry, I should have explained this to you a work when I first talked to you about it. I just assumed that you would do what I said and that was a big mistake I don't even know why I thought that, every member of the team would have fought me on the issue, or just lie like Reid did. I used all the wrong words. I never meant for a minute to make you think I didn't trust you. There is no one I trust more in this world than you. I love you and I just want you to be safe and happy." He grabbed her hand as he spoke.

"I love you too, I'm sorry we fought and I started to leave."

"I'm glad you heard me out I really didn't want you to leave."

"I would have come back when I calmed down. A few hours in my empty apartment would have been more than enough time and motivation to come back."

"Well I 'm happy you stayed." He really wanted to kiss her but he didn't want to try until she forgave him.

"Me too"

"Ready to forgive me yet?" He asked playfully.

"I think I might be" she said as she pulled him by the shirt and gave a kiss. Several minutes later they finally pulled apart.

"Jess took Jack to the park."

"Hmm, how long do you think we have?" She asked between kisses.

"At least a half an hour, I am sure she is going to give us a wide berth for a while. You know what Jack asked me before he left?"

"What?"

"He asked if you called me Hotch and when I told him you did he said 'Daddy you're in big trouble'."

She laughed "He is a little profiler already."

"Oh he has you all figured out." He said kissing her again.

"Are you interested in seeing if what they say about make-up sex is true? She asked when they came up for air.

"Oh I am if you are." He responded with a smile.

"Do you have to ask."

About two weeks previous the doctor told her that she could have sex if she was careful. They took the doctor's instruction to heart and they were 'careful' every chance they got. After a month and a half of making out they both had pent up frustration they were dying to release.

All of Emily's clothes, soon found their way to the floor and were joined by Aaron's a minute later.

"I think they were right about make-up sex, it is better." She said trying to catch her breath twenty minutes later.

"Yes, though I think it is best when it only happens every once in a while.

"We are both pretty stubborn." She added with a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh I know we are going to fight, I just don't like doing it. I don't like to upset you or make you cry."

"Yes but a little fighting is a sign of a healthy relationship."

"I know" He said looking at the clock. "We need to get dressed they will be back soon." He said moving quickly to find their clothes

He was right they were dressed with just a minute to spare before the two reentered the apartment.

"Are you both still alive, any one need to go to the ER" Jessica joked as she carefully entered the living room.

"No we are fine." Emily said as she tickled Jack, something that she loved doing with the little boy.

"I see you are still here does that mean you two worked out whatever the issue was?" She wanted to make sure they weren't going to attack each other again once she left.

"Yes we did" Emily answered.

"We were able to talk the problem out and I was forgiven." Aaron said with a smile as he moved next to Emily and joined in the tickle fest with his son.

"That's good I think I will be going now that peace has been restored." She said hugging Jack.

"Thank you so much Jess" They both said sincerely

"No problem guys see you tomorrow." And with that she left the now calm apartment. Aaron gave jack one finale round of tickles then headed toward the kitchen.

"Emily were you mad at daddy?" Jack asked when the tickling stopped.

"I was but I am not anymore everything is okay." Emily said kneeing down so she was eye to eye with the little boy.

"That's good you two are loud when you fight and I don't like it." He pouted a little.

"I'm sorry sweetie we didn't mean to fight and just because we fight doesn't mean we don't love you or each other." She said pulling him into her arms.

"I know I still don't like it. You guys missed the park cause you were fighting. I went really high on the swing it was awesome."

"That's great and I am so sorry we missed it." Emily said as she kissed Jack's forehead. "I love Daddy and I love you very much you know that right?"

"Yeah I love you too." He said giving her a big hug. "Will you read me a story while daddy makes dinner?"

"I would love to." She smiled returning to her feet.

The two walked hand in hand into his bedroom, peace once again fully restored to the Hotchner Residence.

A/N This was the chapter that didn't want to be published, I swear I have never had so much trouble with a chapter before. The website failed to save detailed changes to the story twice and I lost a whole scene that was hand written and therefore had to completely rewrite it, sorry for any typos I wanted to get this up before something else went wrong. I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to be done with it. Though in spite of all my technical difficulties I hope you like it an I apologize for taking so long. Thank you for putting up with all my delays and I really hope you like the chapter. And an Extra super special thank you for the reviews.

they were all secretly delighted in the new relationship between two of their members.


	24. Happily Ever After

Ch 24 Happily Ever After

Nearly seven months has passed since Emily Prentiss had been abducted and tortured by George Grant. Her wounds and broken bones were now completely healed, her claustrophobia was almost non-existent and she was only having nightmares every once in a while. Even with all of that Emily still decided to continue seeing her therapist once every month. Right now they were working on getting rid of any lasting claustrophobia that she might have. In addition Emily wanted to continue to go because it gave her someone to talk to about the horrors she saw on the job, plus she wanted to have a professional on hand in case anything ever happened at work again.

Emily's love life was going equally as well, her relationship with Aaron kept getting better as time went on. The two had a very happy healthy relationship which meant that in addition to a lot of wonderful times they also fought every so often. Several of their argument centered around work, from time to time Emily felt that Aaron was being too over protective while Aaron professed that he wasn't playing favorites or preventing her from doing something dangerous just because he had feelings for her. They always found a way to work the problem out though and it usually ended with a long round of makeup sex, which they both fully enjoyed.

When Emily returned to duty they decided to share a hotel room when they traveled for cases. There was some concern that their relationship and room arrangement in particular would interfere with their job. In reality the exact opposite occurred, sharing a room resulted in an increased job performance, they slept better and it was a lot easier to have makeup sex while sharing a room. Also it allowed them to be more professional while working, if one had a problem or issue with the other they almost always waited till they were back in their room before discussing it or fighting about it. There were rare occasions when the problem needed to be dealt with immediately and even then they made sure they never fought in front of the team or local officers.

Their relationship was going so well that after only four months together Emily decided to give up her apartment. She knew then that she wanted to stay with the two Hotchner men for as long as they would have her. Aaron's apartment was a tight fit for all three of them but neither he nor Emily were going to suggest moving to Jack until they were ready to seriously consider expanding their family.

It was now the end of December right before New Year's Eve and a blanket of snow covered the Quantico grounds. The Holiday season had brought a lull in the cases and the team was looking forward to an enjoyable long weekend with some well deserved down time.

The week before Emily and Aaron spent their first Christmas together and Emily was more excited than Jack was for Christmas to come, something Aaron didn't even know was possible. She insisted on buying the five year old more toys than he ever needed. Aaron tried to convince her that Jack didn't need all the presents. But he didn't try very hard to dissuade her, he could see how much it meant to her, and he couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since she had someone to celebrate Christmas with.

Emily spent all of Christmas day playing with Jack and his new toys which both of them thoroughly enjoyed, and Aaron loved watching them. Emily had become a very important part of Jack's life, he wouldn't go to bed till she at least gave him a kiss good night, and usually he demanded a story as well. He got very upset if he couldn't talk to both of them while they were away. And Jack had started coming straight to Emily whenever he got hurt. At first Emily felt guilty about this, she didn't want to replace Aaron especially when it came to making the five year old feel better. But then one day Aaron confessed how happy he was to have her there to do those things for Jack.

"Saying this probably makes me a horrible father but I am glad he runs to you when he is hurt or upset." She tried to protest but he cut her off.

"When it was just the two of us I actually had anxiety over dealing with these things. I always felt that i was making thing worse when I tired to help him, and I know i was, I could see it in his eyes. And I wasn't going to do what my father did which was to tell me that real men didn't cry and that I should just get over it. I didn't exactly have a great roll model as a child, and these were usually the things Haley always took care of and I took that for granted. But now he comes to you and you always find a way to make things better. On top of that I no longer worry about the times he comes to me, I am more confident because of use I can usually manage to fix things now. This time around I am not taking it for granted so thank you."

She had tears in her eyes when he finished. "Your welcome" she said softly. "I love you both very much."

"And we love you. I can't remember what life was like before you lived with us and I don't want to know."

"A lot less crowded" she joked.

"But a lot less fun."

"Aaron don't be so hard on yourself you had a lot to figure out, being a single parent is not easy, you were doing a wonderful job before I crash landed here."

"Well you can crash land with me anytime." He said with a kiss.

Jack had appeared to have completely forgotten their conversation about a new baby, but Emily had not. As time passed she thought about their conversation more and more and since Christmas it was all she thought about when not working, and by December 30th she found that she was thinking about it instead of working.

Late that Thursday afternoon Emily entered Aaron's office quickly and without knocking, which was strange, even now with their relationship she always knocked. She closed the door and threw the files she was carrying down on the desk.

"Files" she said in a kind of gruff voice. She then went and closed his blinds.

Aaron quickly sat up and searched his brain for what he possibly could have done wrong, they had been reviewing case files all day and their lunch earlier had been pretty romantic. But she was clearly angry about something and for the life of him he couldn't think of anything that he had done wrong. He thought that maybe if he started off with a joke the situation might get a little better, or at least her reaction might help him determine what he had done wrong.

"Careful Emily people are going to think we are doing all types of unspeakable things up here."

"Maybe we should do all types of unspeakable things then." She said with a big smile as she came over to him and sat on his lap giving him a big kiss.

Aaron was elated, he was wrong she defiantly was not mad at him. And all he could think was that not only was she not mad at him she wanted to have sex; his day had just improved greatly.

"Hmm not that I mind but I thought we agreed not to do this except in special circumstances."

"I am calling this a special circumstance." She said with a seductive smile.

"And what special circumstance may that be."

"Jack is away with his grandparents for New Years, it is going to be a long weekend and I want to stop practicing and start trying." She said between kisses to his neck which felt very nice but was also proved to be a rather large distraction to Aaron which was why he wasn't sure if he heard or understood her correctly.

"Are you telling me you would like to try and have a baby?" He asked pulling away from her kisses.

"I am, I think we are in a really good place right now. The doctor said that I am in perfect health. My therapy had gone really well, no panic attacks, only a few nightmares and I haven't gotten claustrophobic in a long time. We haven't killed each other yet and it has been almost seven months. I love living with you and Jack and I love you. I want to have a baby with you, it is all I seem to think about these days. Do you think we should wait?" She asked a little concerned that they weren't on the same page in their relationship anymore.

"No I completely agree I just wanted to make sure that you really wanted this and that our conversation months ago wasn't pushing you into something you are not ready for. I am ready, I think were ready. All during Christmas when I watched you play with Jack you two were adorable but it felt like something was missing and I realized it was another child. I love Jack more than anything but I have always wanted more kids it just didn't seem like a possibility before. But now I have you and I really want to have a child with you, I want to give Jack a little brother or sister. And I think we are ready, it is all I have thought about lately too."

In response she gave him the biggest passion filled kiss she could possibly give.

"So you want to start tonight?" He asked raising his eyebrow suggestively.

"I was hoping it would be a weekend long event."

"Hmm that sounds like fun, how about we start with a nice romantic dinner at home, I was thinking that pasta dish you like, some nice white wine and then maybe some cheesecake while we 'watch' a movie."

"Oh you do know how to treat a girl, but you can make us that nice dinner tomorrow night tonight I want a big greasy pizza, that we get to eat in bed." She said with a seductive smile then kissed him, after a while she finally but very reluctantly got off his lap. "I suppose I should go back to work, think my boss will let me go home early?"

"Oh I think there is a very good chance he will, I think you could probably manage to leave in a hour."

"Sounds good" She turned to leave but then a thought made her turn around. "You do know what this means though?"

"What?" He once again had no idea what she was talking about.

"We are going to have to find a big house with a pool for Jack." They both burst out laughing.

"You're right but in reality we really need the room, the apartment is so cramped to begin with we can't move without hitting something and half our stuff and all your furniture is in storage. We need a new place to live baby or not." He said

"I guess I know what else we are doing this weekend."

"Yes but the other thing comes first right?" There was no way he was going to allow house hunting to take precedent over a weekend of baby making sex.

"Oh you bet because I hear that trying is even better than practicing and our practice attempts are pretty 'awesome' to steal Jack's word. I can't wait to see what trying is like."

"I do not disappoint Agent Prentiss."

"That's good Agent Hotchner." They returned to their rather intense kissing, this time in the middle of his office.

"Does it have to have a pool?" He asked pulling away from their kiss.

"Well in Jack's mind a pool and a baby go hand in hand."

"But a pool is a lot of work."

"Yes and they are a lot of fun and I think Jack will be upset if we don't get a pool and I might be as well." She said with a bashful smile on her face.

"I see it is two again one, I guess a pool it is, I hope the next child takes my side."

"Highly unlikely just thought I should warn you now, before you get high hopes, it will likely be the other way around; you will be taking his or her side."

"Well if she has beautiful eyes like yours it will be very hard to say no."

"You have no problem telling me no"

"Only at work, at home you usually get whatever you want."

"I think you have selective memory since I got hurt you have been a very bossy man at home."

"Yes but those were special circumstances. I was taking care of you it's like the rolling stones song _you can't always get what you want but sometimes you just might find you get what you need_."

"Well if you're not careful you will be singing _I can't get no, satisfaction_."

"Shutting up now."

"That's a good idea" She said giving him a deep long kiss. "We could always start trying right here right now?"

"I don't think that's a good idea no matter how much I would really like to and I would really like to. Dave's next door and we wouldn't hear the end of it. Plus Strauss could end up pounding down the door at any moment. You surprised me I didn't do my through locations check on her."

" You keep track of where Strauss is?"

"Of course I do, everyone does." He said with a smile.

"Well it would make it more exciting if there was the possibility of Strauss catching us."

"But not so exciting knowing Dave would be listening to us while we did it."

"That's true." She pulled back a little. He missed the attention she was giving him but they were headed down a fun but dangerous road and stopping was necessary.

"You know it is the day before a holiday weekend and I am the boss. I say we are leaving now. I think we should do some of that trying before dinner."

"Have I told you that you are the best boss that ever lived?"

"You might have, but feel free to say it as often as you like."

"Come on Aaron let's go make a baby." She said as they left his office.

The End?

A/N I am so sorry for taking so long to update. This chapter felt like the right place to end the story, I am planning, and I have even written a little bit of a sequel (That is if people want one?). I am also thinking a completely new Criminal Minds story with H/P that I hope to start writing soon. From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank everyone who read this story, and to everyone who reviewed I cannot begin to tell you how much each review meant to me they provided so much encouragement and made this whole process pure Joy. Again Thank You and I hope you enjoy the chapter, and a Happy 4th of July (whether it is a holiday for you or not)!


End file.
